The general public outcry over artificial intelligence has largely targeted on what it may imply for the typical employee. Entry-level jobs in sectors like tech and finance have already been impacted by the rise of AI. And whereas economists have said the claims of workforce disruption are overblown for the time being, some firms are, actually, making main cuts to their workforces within the identify of AI. Simply this week, Block CEO Jack Dorsey cut 40% of head count on the fintech firm, citing effectivity good points from its adoption of AI instruments.
But it surely’s not simply rank-and-file staff whose jobs could also be on the road. As CEOs tout the huge potential of AI—and make cuts to their workforces accordingly—a lot of them have instructed that they could possibly be out of labor quickly, too.
In a podcast interview this week, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi disclosed that a few of his staff had constructed what they referred to as “Dara AI,” an AI-generated approximation of their boss. “They mainly make the presentation to the Dara AI as a prep for making a presentation to me,” Khosrowshahi shared on entrepreneur Steven Bartlett’s podcast The Diary of a CEO.
“Are you involved they could present Dara AI to the board?” Bartlett quipped. To which Khosrowshahi laughed and argued that AI was nonetheless “lacking a beat” and couldn’t but replicate the “capacity to study in actual time.” However when that modifications, he mentioned, “that’s the level at which I’m going to assume, yeah, we’re all replaceable.”
Khosrowshahi may not be satisfied that AI can supplant him simply but—however he’s not the one CEO who sees a future the place that could be the case.
“Disgrace on me if OpenAI is just not the primary massive firm run by an AI CEO,” Sam Altman mentioned on the Conversations with Tyler podcast final yr. He claimed to usually take into consideration what would allow an AI CEO “to do a a lot, significantly better job of working OpenAI than me?” At a convention final week, Altman doubled down on this concept. “AI superintelligence in some unspecified time in the future on its improvement curve could be able to doing a greater job being the CEO of a serious firm than any government—definitely me,” he mentioned on the AI Impression Summit in New Delhi.
Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai has instructed a CEO’s job could be comparatively easy within the arms of AI. “I believe what a CEO does is possibly one of many simpler issues possibly for an AI to do in the future,” he told the BBC just a few months in the past. Throughout the subsequent yr, Pichai mentioned, AI will be capable to carry out extra advanced duties autonomously.
It’s not clear whether or not CEOs genuinely consider that their jobs could possibly be changed within the close to future, or if that is largely one other try and persuade staff that it’s time to get on board with AI. In spite of everything, there’s a enormous disconnect between how tech leaders and CEOs speak about AI and what staff appear to really feel: In 2025, a report from the Pew Research Center discovered that solely about 17% of Individuals anticipated AI to have a optimistic impact general, whereas 43% mentioned they anticipated being personally harmed by the expertise.
Then once more—it might not be a straightforward adjustment for each CEO, even among the many most vocal AI evangelists. Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski has been outspoken about AI adoption and has minimize his firm’s workforce in half over the past three years, partly by relying extra closely on AI (to varying results). He was much less optimistic, nevertheless, a few world by which his position may stop to exist.
“To me, AI is able to doing all our jobs, my very own included,” he mentioned in a post on X final yr. “I’m not essentially tremendous enthusiastic about this. Quite the opposite, my work to me is an excellent vital a part of who I’m, and realizing it’d change into pointless is gloomy. However I additionally consider we must be trustworthy with what we expect will occur.”
