AI’s biggest impact is likely to occur far from the laptop, says the CEO of a $15 billion AI company.
Kasar Younis, co-founder and CEO of Applied Intuition, said on Sunday’s episode of Lenny’s Podcast that the “real impact of AI over the next five to 10 years” will be seen in physical industries such as “agriculture, mining, construction, self-driving trucks.”
Applied Intuition develops software to test and power self-driving cars and other machinery. In June, the company announced it had raised $600 million in a funding round, valuing it at $15 billion.
Software tools like Moltbook and OpenClaw may excite developers, but they only impact a small portion of society, Younis said.
“I love what’s happening on these platforms, but frankly it’s still segregated to developers and the like,” he added.
Instead, he said the biggest changes will come from adding intelligence to machines already embedded in the physical economy.
“More practically speaking, it’s actually just building intelligence into things that already exist around us.”
Industries such as trucking and agriculture urgently need that autonomy, he said.
“People aren’t fighting for trucking jobs,” Younis said. The average farmer is already in his late 50s, and many will retire within the next decade, potentially worsening the labor shortage.
It added that AI is more likely to help fill labor shortages in these industries, rather than completely replacing them.
How AI will impact blue-collar industries
Earlier this year, Wall Street grew concerned that new AI tools and agents could completely replace some software products.
A research paper by Citrini, an investment firm focused on thematic stock investing, sparked a global stock selloff last month after researchers outlined a scenario in which the AI boom would eliminate white-collar jobs and ultimately slow economic growth.
Against this backdrop, some industry leaders say the physical industry could ultimately benefit from technology.
For example, robots could help solve labor shortages in manufacturing. Daniel Diez, Agility Robotics’ chief business officer, told Business Insider in a report published Sunday that manufacturers around the world “just can’t find the people to do this job.”
Ford CEO Jim Farley said last year that AI-powered augmented reality tools are helping technicians repair trucks more efficiently, but he still warned that automation could reshape jobs across the economy.
Business Insider reported last year that some Gen Z workers are considering trades and blue-collar careers as automation and AI bring uncertainty to traditional white-collar jobs.
