Ford CEO Jim Farley pumped the brakes to choose an office job in his AI era.
Speaking at the Aspen Idea Festival on June 27th, Farley reflected on his own family journey, talking about how he created an “essential economy.” His grandfather was a Michigan orphan and built a career at Ford from his early days as an hourly employee.
“I look around the room,” he said in his opening remarks. “At one point, almost every family came from this kind of job.”
But Farley warned that while the American education system focuses on four-year degrees instead of trading, employment at high-tech companies is rapidly declining.
“Artificial intelligence is going to replace literal half of all white-collar workers in the United States,” Farley said. That's why more people are turning to skilled deals, he said. A Ford representative did not immediately respond to BI's request for comment.
Farley is not the only executive who is making an alarm.
Humanity CEO Dario Amodei said in May that AI could eliminate half of entry-level office jobs within five years. Amodei said businesses and governments should stop “sugaring” the risks of widespread job exchanges in areas such as technology, finance, law and consulting.
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Amazon CEO Andy Jassy told employees in June to expect a cut in corporate recruitment due to generative AI (people aren't excited by the notes). Jassy didn't provide much details, but in a later interview he said that new technology will create jobs in robotics and AI.
Other leaders have different views. Cognizant CEO Ravi Kumar told BI he believes AI will create more jobs for university graduates, especially when it comes to human labor. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang also opposed Amodei's warning, saying that AI could change everyone's job but could also climb creative opportunities.
White-collar job postings fell 12.7% in the first quarter year compared to 11.6% DIP for blue-collar jobs. The tech industry in particular is slowing down employment. New graduates of big tech companies fell by around 50% even before the pandemic, according to venture capital firm Signalfire. Some of it has to do with AI, the report said.
Gents is becoming more and more blue-collar jobs. This is what some AI Whisperers think, at least for now, are the safest places in the labour market.
