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As companies invest billions in AI tools and infrastructure, one big fear remains: Will AI replace human jobs? How seriously should we take, for example, Elon Musk's prediction that jobs will become a "hobby" because AI and robots will "provide any goods and services that you want."
Given that we keep being told "AI will replace full-time careers for some employees,"
and with reports stating that 41 percent of companies worldwide plan to downsize their workforces by 2030 as a direct result, it's hard, surely, to see an optimistic path forward for the American white-collar worker.
My response is, "No—this is not the future we see." Rather, AI is perhaps the most empowering workplace and employee technology we've ever seen. Let me explain.
First, as we've all seen with ChatGPT, AI assistants can do amazing things, like read and summarize books, draft résumés and articles, and generate art, images, video and voice. Without much question, I think, if your job involves rote copy-and-paste tasks, AI is poised to take that off your plate.
But just as spreadsheets and PCs didn't eliminate accountants, AI serves as a "superpower" for authors, journalists, analysts and salespeople—radically enhancing their capabilities, rather than replacing them.
We call this "the rise of the superworker"—as it means that AI gives all of us new "superpowers." Think about how you use your smartphone: It maps your travel, connects you to your family and gives you music or news on demand. Do you miss paper maps, dirty and broken payphones or the newsprint all over your hands?
Of course not. Just like your phone, AI is "superpowering" our lives. At work, where output truly matters, AI empowers individuals and companies to grow, scale, increase profitability and earn more money.
A New Vision of Work, Pay and Career
Consider a nursing supervisor or a Starbucks store manager. In a superworking future, instead of sitting in the back of the store or behind a desk and looking at a wall chart of shift schedules and making calls to see who's available when someone calls in sick, AI can schedule things automatically.
Widen the lens and you can see how a new breed of AI "shift agents" lets each nurse or barista manage their own schedule. It can even call available staff to bring them in when extra hands are needed, factor in what times of day demand is high and fully optimize schedules to keep the business running smoothly.
A major health care client the Josh Bersin Company works with implemented this system, and nursing productivity went up by 20 percent. Supervisors now feel "liberated" to spend more time with patients. What about sales and marketing? Marketing managers spend hours building ads, writing copy, designing webpages and fine-tuning promotions by hand—often their real creative work, building the message, is buried in hours of work executing graphics, fonts and images. Now suppose your new whip-smart and informed marketing AI agent handled these tasks automatically, even optimizing placements precisely for the best results.
What does that mean for the role of marketing manager? It certainly doesn't mean they are being shown the door. They will in fact evolve into an expert campaign strategist, focusing on high-impact initiatives and guiding the AI to optimize performance. When a new product launch or an opportunity arises, they can pivot swiftly, leveraging AI to execute strategies with precision and agility.
Superworking examples won't stop there. Take the sales team following up on all the leads generated from the AI marketing agent. Instead of making endless calls, playing a dart game and hoping they get someone on the phone who is interested (in a world where no one's taken a cold call in decades), the marketing AI agent could look at the sales history for each lead and automatically prioritize who the sales rep should call. And if that person buys something, the AI agent learns that "people like this are worth marketing to," and it gives the sales teams even sharper advice on who to target next.
AI Is About Growth and Scale, Not Just Automation
And here's the key: AI isn't just about efficiency, it's about creating growth—growth for companies and growth for individuals. And companies who innovate are proving this out. For example, PwC's latest annual CEO survey found that companies that redeploy at least 30 percent of their workforce every year are 2 percent more profitable than those that don't. So, that's the real opportunity with AI—using it not just for cutting payroll, but harnessing its power to help both your employees and your company evolve and thrive.
Take a step back and consider why this may have arrived at the perfect moment: Your workplace is still likely structured around ideas from the 1950s, or even earlier, dictating how we manage time, share information and collaborate. So much of our corporate infrastructure is a relic of traditional technology. After all, isn't email just a digital version of the old interoffice memo?
Time enough for a fresh start. What if we could rethink work—not just in small steps but through bold innovation? AI offers that chance—not just to automate, but to transform work itself, unlocking creativity and efficiency in ways we're only beginning to explore.
I know this is true because I've seen it firsthand in offices where it's already happening. Take Standard Chartered Bank, for example, which has simplified its structure to such an extent that it mapped out the entire bank's workflows on a single piece of paper. The result is a flatter, more agile organization that prioritizes skills and capabilities over tenure, hierarchy and managerial status.
This shift isn't just about efficiency—it's about making businesses more dynamic, adaptable and ready for the future. Organizations moving to make the superworking concept a reality achieve this by embedding AI at every level, empowering their people to move beyond outdated bureaucratic processes. Instead, they can focus on smarter, faster and more digital ways to break down barriers and get things done.
The takeaway here is that in today's rapidly evolving corporate landscape, success hinges on three things: fully embracing AI (both GenAI and, soon, intelligent agents), breaking down rigid hierarchies and fostering a culture of continuous learning.
Organizations that master this synergy won't just keep up. They'll lead.
In an organization like this, you'll be far more focused on new opportunities for promotion and compensation rather than on worrying about AI "taking your job." AI accelerates learning and upskilling, allowing employees to advance based on capability rather than time served.
Many New Careers Will Be Created
Every time a new technology arrives, new careers are created. Look at how many jobs we have building websites, creating blogs and podcasts, and developing mobile apps, only possible because of the digital revolution. AI will do the same, and that's where companies are investing.
We're seeing brands invest in AI-driven career paths that show employees what skills they need, even recommending jobs within the company. Rather than hoping your manager can find you a new job, the AI finds one for you. Companies like Mastercard, MetLife and Standard Charter now do this at scale.
And of course, thousands of new jobs are emerging for AI engineers, prompt specialists, AI trainers and, soon, even "AI managers"—professionals who will coach and collaborate with workplace AIs. This is why the most AI-centric companies tend to have the largest workforces—they're growing so rapidly. Just look at Amazon, with over a million employees and no shortage of jobs.
Those Who Embrace AI Will Thrive
What if you're left behind? The number one question I get when I give presentations on AI and the future workplace is, "What will happen to my job?" Well, just as we experienced with PCs, mobile phones and the web, AI is simply another new tool to learn. It doesn't take very long to learn to use ChatGPT, Perplexity or Galileo. It's as easy as asking a few questions—you'll quickly see what these tools can do.
My message to HR and business people is, "Come on in, the AI water's fine!" Play with these tools, experiment, push them to their limits, and you'll see how powerful you suddenly become.
Some Change Along the Way
That's not to say disruption won't happen. Just as Superman had to throw a few cars around and break some things before he learned to harness his power, we have to learn to manage our new AI powers.
We have to make sure our AI systems are trained on quality data. As the saying goes, "garbage in, garbage out," and now we can create garbage that sounds as polished as a college professor. So it's up to us, in our organizations, to make sure we train our AI with accurate, quality information.
We also need to rethink our roles. When multifunctional agents, like the marketing and sales examples I shared, come to pass, some middle-manager positions may evolve or go away. But that doesn't mean those people, or their expertise, are no longer needed. New jobs will emerge to program the AI, give it feedback and refine its behavior, but within a more fluid, less hierarchical framework.
One thing I've learned about business is that it's the most fertile ground for invention the world has ever seen. Once your company has AI co-pilots on people's desks, people will use them instinctively, without even noticing, and they'll start to think of new ideas to add value. The very first spreadsheet, which was an empty grid, eventually gave birth to Salesforce (a $300 billion company) and thousands of other data applications we never could have conceived before.
And think of the way we learn. In the past, we relied on the tenured employees to teach us what we needed to know. But these folks are retiring, so why not capture all their knowledge in an AI "digital twin?" Insurance companies are doing this today, capturing the knowledge of claims agents who are ready to retire. This means new employees learn faster and on a continuous basis, and the pace of innovation accelerates, plus we are prepared for the "silver tsunami" when huge numbers of baby boomers are set to retire.
Let's Create the AI Future We Want
The rise of the superworker isn't just a vision—it's a project already in motion. Companies that only use AI to reduce headcount will be overtaken and disrupted by those who reimagine their organizations, focus on skills and empower their people.
Each of us, as employees, parents and leaders, is part of this epic opportunity. Let's use our superpowers for good, focusing on the power of the human spirit. AI isn't, then, the end of work, it's the opportunity of your working lifetime.
