Concerned AI is Going to Dominate the Labor Market?

We’re in trouble.

I know I should be posting more uplifting reading this close to the holidays, but I’ve had an interesting few weeks. I’ve been working on closing a business deal and starting a new venture. And both have been eye opening.

We’re in trouble.

AI is coming for us, and I don’t mean the end of times kind of trouble. I mean the disruption kind of trouble.

The end of times trouble will find us soon enough if reckless competition outpaces regulation and if a handful of companies get to decide for us what the future holds. And that is to say nothing of malign actors. But well before the end times trouble, we’ll have economic disruption trouble.

By way of backdrop, in attempting to close that business deal, I find we are working at the pace of lawyers. Which is to say, we aren’t working at the pace of business or at an acceptable pace for the year almost 2026. This deal has been agreed to in principle for some time, but it has been so delayed in the papering of it that it will cost everyone time and money. Well, except those billing by the hour.

Against that old economy backdrop, I spent several days last week discussing a new venture. I sat with younger, more tech-savvy folks who showed me a bit about what I don’t know, or at least something to which I had no real exposure – AI.

I knew, as many have been discussing, that AI was coming for our entry level jobs. I knew those jobs and jobs of a more rote nature would be taken over by AI agents. I worried about what that might mean for those at the lower rungs of business and those entering the workforce. I also worried about what that meant for career development. After all, today’s Chief Financial Officer learned valuable things by being yesterday’s entry-level cost accountant.

But what I learned over the last few days is that AI is coming for all of us, regardless of job or level on the organizational chart.

I watched in astonishment as those I was with turned to their phones and asked their AI agents (to whom they have given personalized first names) for answers to everything. I listened as the voices of these AI agents, in tones that could be friendly or supportive or instructive, guided those I was with through both their professional and personal lives.

I listened as ChatGPT replaced a financial consultant, explaining to a business owner what steps to take to increase the valuation of his business. It was correct, industry-specific, and quantifiable.

I listened as AI guided a salesperson through dealing with that customer…you know the one who is too big to dump but so annoying you spend half the day in deep breathing exercises. It drafted email responses that retained the customer but improved the understanding between the two organizations.

I listened as ChatGPT replaced a therapist, explaining to someone how best to navigate a family holiday crisis. It was understanding, pitch perfect, and may have saved relationships from permanent harm.

I listened as it replaced a best friend and matchmaker, guiding a man in our group through the minefield of early dating. It was a modern-day masterclass on how to be interested without sounding desperate. It determined the woman’s “attachment” style and instructed this man how best to communicate with her as a result. And yes, then when prompted, it explained to the group just what an attachment style is.

All of this AI agenting was instantaneous. Just feed it an email thread or text chain or prompt. Watch out attorney who delays reply until after her big trial is over. Watch out therapist who can squeeze you in next month on the 27^th. Watch out consultant whose years of industry wisdom can be replaced by AI that has already devoured every business book ever written, every case study ever studied, and every stat from every industry ever statted. Watch out universities. Your tuition’s return on investment was already becoming dangerously low. Now everyone can just seek a specific knowledge item when needed. Watch out Dear Abby. Watch out best friend. And yes someday, no doubt, watch out significant other.

Scarier still, I watched and listened as one person’s AI agent talked directly to another’s. I even listened to them “roast” each other. Side note…roasting is all the rage in 2025. I can’t wait until that word is gone. It hurts my ears even more than the overuse of “curated.” Why is it that young people want so desperately to be roasted? If I used AI, I might ask.

I naively thought AI was wrong more than right. And it does get it wrong sometimes because it too is learning from inaccurate information. Just a few weeks ago, Google AI search tried to tell me that the golfing great, Jack Nicklaus, putted using a left-hand low grip. He didn’t. Smart people will have to figure out how we deal with these inaccuracies. But I didn’t hear much wrong in my eavesdropped two-day crash course in AI last week. And further still, I don’t know that it would have mattered. It was taken as gospel.

So, what does this mean for our economy and our future? I think it safe to say our leaders aren’t doing enough to think about it or prepare for it. They are too busy taking 43-day paid vacations and, well, roasting one another.

AI isn’t going to affect just those entering the workforce or those in repetitive jobs. And it isn’t just going to affect those in the service sector. AI combined with robotics will decimate manufacturing jobs as well. Even if bringing manufacturing home to the United States is the right move (I’ve argued against that for many reasons from economic to global security), those manufacturing jobs aren’t going to be done by human beings in our future.

AI and robotics are coming for all our jobs, yes even the trades. What electric company would send a man up onto that pole in a storm if there were an option to send a machine that can work 24/7 without rest, one that can be dropped in from a drone instead of driving his heavy truck through felled trees and washed-out roads? What am I even talking about, twenty years from now AI will be explaining to a young person what an electric pole was.

And while all these jobs won’t disappear tomorrow, they will disappear. What will we all do then? Perhaps we can drive for Uber. Oh wait, we already have self-driving ride share and both autonomous air taxis and delivery drones are on the way.

Perhaps we can become artists. Oh wait, AI can write a novel in the voice of Ernest Hemingway or carve a sculpture in the style of Rodin. And as my nephew proved to me a few weeks ago, it can write, play, and sing a pretty darn good song. All artists are inspired by what they have seen or heard. So how does one compete with something that has seen and heard everything ever created?

I’m not even sure professional athletes are safe. Seeing a soccer player score with a bicycle kick is cool, but a robot soccer player that could combine an ice skater’s triple Salchow into a bicycle kick…now that’s entertainment.

To be sure there is enormous potential benefit in using AI. But there is cataclysmic disruption. And all I’ve spoken of here is the labor force disruption. No, the total disruption from AI will make the industrial revolution or the internet revolution look merely like switching from propeller planes to jet planes.

Today I have no answers as tech companies race to retire us, only a question. That question is...and then what?

We on the right scoff at the left’s notions of universal basic income. But the right may need that income very, very soon.

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