Erik Brynjolfsson discussed AI's impact on employment across four interviews published Nov. 2–4: a video interview with The Wall Street Journal, two NPR segments and a McKinsey video.
NPR's Planet Money and The Indicator ran a live Q&A with Brynjolfsson and Nobel laureate Daron Acemoglu on Nov. 2 and 4, titled Will AI take my job? Two economists answer your questions and Will AI take my job? Ask an economist! The segments addressed questions about job displacement in current economic data, what a pro-worker approach to AI development looks like and advice for college students entering the workforce. The Wall Street Journal published Erik Brynjolfsson on the Future of the Workforce on Nov. 4, and McKinsey released How AI Is Changing The Career Ladder | Stanford Economist on Nov. 3.
Brynjolfsson's central argument is that AI will require reorganization rather than replacement. He estimates that 50% to 60% of the workforce will be affected by AI, but organizations will still need people with creative, interpersonal and problem-solving skills. His research with the Stanford Digital Economy Lab has examined some 18,000 tasks to map how generative AI, robotics and remote work will reshape specific jobs and industries.
In the McKinsey interview, Brynjolfsson said workers will need more initiative to find opportunities AI creates, recalling advice he gave students in his final class at Stanford. “When you hear AI, you should not think artificial intelligence,” he said. “You should think amplifying intention, because that’s what it does.”
About the Speaker
Erik Brynjolfsson is director of the Stanford Digital Economy Lab at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence and a senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. An economist widely cited for his research on AI and digital technologies, he is the New York Times bestselling co-author, with Andrew McAfee, of The Second Machine Age and Machine, Platform, Crowd. Thinkers50 has ranked him among the world's top management thinkers six times, from 2015 to 2025.
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