We sit at the nexus of the next evolution of careers in the field of technology as A.I. continues its growth and dominance over nearly every aspect of modern work. The evolution that first occurred during my career was in the early nineties. I was a lowly programmer at Roche starting my journey when news of six-figure jobs for coders in Silicon Valley made its way across the country. It was an amazing dream: move to California, work hard, create hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, save millions, and retire early. That dream is now dead. The new reality is that you have to have A.I. skills to get in the door and grow.
What Employers Are Saying
LinkedIn and Microsoft surveyed over 31,000 people for their 2024 Annual Work Trend Index, which produced some headline-making results. First, talent is in greater demand than experience. A staggering 71 percent of global hiring leaders responded that they would hire someone with A.I. skills and zero industry experience rather than an industry veteran with no A.I. skills. This is not exclusive to those in traditional “technical” roles. Hiring managers want people who work as project managers, graphic designers and even accountants (to name only a few) to be apt in using A.I. tools relevant to their positions.
The Lasting Impact of ChatGPT
In the nineties, average engineers could work for the highest bidder and leverage positions to job and salary hop, building a career and salary beyond their imagination. What we are seeing now is similar. Those jumping in and learning to leverage ChatGPT to advance their skill set, work and output are positioned at the front of the line. What the collapse of 2008 did to Wall Street, ChatGPT and A.I. are doing to tech—a complete revolution and course change.
It’s a familiar script repeating itself. In the eighties, Wall Street traders saw computers take jobs. In the nineties, hedge fund managers watched algorithms surpass human performance. In 2008, traditional investment banking was altered forever. Now, software engineers are witnessing GPTs and Agentics become them. The numbers do not lie; the tech industry laid off an estimated 150,000 employees in 2024 alone. Add this to the substantial cuts of 2022 and 2023, and A.I.’s impact can be seen in its near totality.
Become Elite. Stay in the Lead.
The future of work will be centered upon one’s ability to leverage A.I. for efficiency and accuracy. A.I. is set to automate up to 70 percent of all work functions across nearly all verticals. The future of work is A.I., and the effects on labor could be staggering. Designers can now build apps for an enterprise with A.I., doctors can create custom medical software by inputting a description into a GPT, and small lean teams can do the work that seems like it used to take over 100 engineers to complete. To be one of these lean team members, you must upskill and make yourself elite and irreplaceable. This is about your future and your economic survival.
China is Winning the A.I. Race
It feels, in some ways, like the space race again. Only this time, America is being challenged by the Chinese, not the Russians. And the moon isn’t the prize; the future of technology and its uses are. The numbers are quite alarming. From 2014 to 2023, China patented 38,210 AI-related inventions compared to 6,276 by the United States. Then, in 2024, China continued to lead with 12,945 total AI patents, while the U.S. continued to lag with 8,609.
The U.S. government is failing its citizenry. Some 84 percent of international employees have received organizational support to learn A.I. skills. In contrast, this number is barely over 50 percent in the U.S. By not investing in A.I. literacy and not prioritizing A.I. literacy to be hired, America is now exposed to international bad actors who can take advantage of the uneducated and unprepared.
What this Means for the U.S. Workforce
There are two paths the modern American worker can take. The first is staying in the status quo and enjoying the comforts of now. The main issue is that the present will become the past faster than you realize, and you’ll be left with unnecessary skills to compete in the workforce. Your work will become automated, leaving you on the sidelines. The second is a chaotic future of constant change and competition. But you can be part of the team that builds the new tools that create the future. You can specialize in AI integration into legacy companies and legacy systems. You’ll be the one being innovative and solving seemingly unsolvable problems.
Now is the Time for the U.S. and its Workforce to Act
This issue must be addressed immediately at all levels of society. At the top, the United States and all State governments must mandate A.I. experience or proficiency for every position that works with any technology, from a laptop to a server farm. Next, all enterprises and governmental agencies must accelerate upskilling and reskilling their workforce in AI and integrate this into all training and onboarding courses. Then, create incentive programs for continuous learning in AI via subsidies, tax rebates, or refunds.
Those of us in the workforce must take a similar approach. What we know now is not what we will need to know in a year or two. We must be students. We must constantly search for ways to learn and garner the knowledge and skills required for the future and today. A.I. isn’t a technology of the future—it’s the present. If you don’t learn A.I., you won’t simply be unemployed—you’ll be unemployable. The world won’t wait. Adapt or be replaced.
