The Big Question

Recently I’ve been reflecting on a question everyone in AI seems to be scared of: is AI going to take all of our jobs? Perhaps it’s avoided because it’s not that simple. If yes, then what? If no, what role does AI play? Regardless of reason, I think this is the most important societal question related to AI in the next decade.

In short: yes, I believe AI will replace many existing jobs, but the real thought comes from the why this will happen and the what comes next. I might be wrong, and in some cases I hope I am, but these are my thoughts, along with steps we can take as a society to ensure AI becomes a force for happiness rather than the opposite.

How can AI do that, and what Jobs will it replace?

To begin to answer the question of whether AI will replace parts of the modern workforce, you first need to understand a technology called AI agents. I’ll write a full piece later on how agents work, but for now, a basic understanding will do. AI agents are software that take a user’s goal, break it into step-by-step tasks, and then use existing tools, such as email, spreadsheets, and CRMs, to complete each task without manual effort.

Most agents today are really good at the following three steps: Ingest raw data from one or more sources, transform and standardize the data, and export a clean result. Add modern voice and video AI capabilities and agents can transcribe a call, extract action items, tag them in your project tool and build a slide deck all without human input.

Now map that to entry-level roles. Analysts, BDRs, consultants, accountants, marketing coordinators and more live on that ingest-transform-output cycle. They gather information, clean and organize it and paste it into spreadsheets, CRMs or slide decks.

Agents do those loops in seconds, at scale and without errors. There’s an old adage: first, you get paid for what you do. Then you get paid for what you know. Finally, you reach a point where you’re valued for who you are. The “paid for what you do” work will feel this impact first.

This question of how many jobs is hard to quantify, but here is one way to think about it. If agents can replicate the processes of your best employees, then those top performers can achieve ten times more with an agent’s help. That means employees whose work outputs are not as good may find their day-to-day work largely unavailable. In turn, the highest performers will focus on the most valuable, strategic work, while others will need to shift into new responsibilities.

With that stated, the important question is not whether agents will replace jobs, regardless of where you fall on this spectrum, some jobs will be replaced. So, the question now becomes what happens when they do.

So What Now?

At this point you’re either thinking “wow, Charlie is draconian” or “If he’s right, I’m in trouble!” and let me explain why this is actually a good thing.

Back to our old adage: first, you get paid for what you do, then what you know, finally who you are. If the “paid for what you do” category is in trouble that leaves us a crucial problem: Corporate America is set up so you can climb this ladder. If we remove the “paid for what you do” phase, you can’t learn enough to reach the “paid for what you know” phase, eventually causing a massive talent shortage. so, how do we fix that?

Our education system.

Let’s be clear: our system is broken. As a child, you spend time learning math but forget it as soon as you turn in your final exam, and science class only sticks as a few odd facts. With the cost of knowledge nearing zero and computers handling complex calculations, it becomes far more important that we know what to do with the result of those calculations. Which means we need to train people to understand the meaning behind the work.

This shouldn’t scare you. In fact, it is why higher education was invented in the first place. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, school past the eighth grade was about understanding the human experience and what to do with it. Not running numbers in though a TI-84 calculator.

You see, this is exciting: a revolution in thoughtful work. Take building a bridge. If you have a machine that gives you the exact physics you need, your job is no longer how to build the bridge but it is to answer why you’re building it, what it represents, and how you can creatively make a bridge people love to cross. I might be a romantic, but this opens up a greenfield of creativity.

Imagine a world where mass production and over-engineering aren’t the goal instead beauty and benevolence are. We’re on the precipice of an American renaissance in creativity and culture, and as AI takes away the work nobody wanted to do, we’re left with a greenfield of creativity for innovation and acceleration like we’ve never seen before.

A Measure of Thought to Close

As I close this, I realize people avoid answering this question because there is no perfect answer. Even mine today has many flaws rooted in the argument itself.

I am aware that AI innovation is moving faster than society can adapt, which could leave people without jobs. I know AI could widen the wealth gap if high-paying work becomes even more centralized. I understand that social media has discouraged thinking, and this argument assumes people will choose to think again.

For these challenges, I have no complete answer, and I wish I did. That said, I refuse to accept a world defined by those realities. My goal is to create a life of abundance for all, where conversations focus on beauty, meaning, and pushing the boundaries of what we believe is possible, limited not by human knowledge, but by human creativity.

I hope you leave this piece with a lot to think about. I hope it motivates you to do more of what you love and less of what you hate. And I hope you are as excited as I am to lead America into our creative and happiness renaissance.