The predictions of white-collar job losses continue to get more grim — and nearer on the horizon.
Robert F Smith, the CEO of Vista Equity Partners, told attendees at the SuperReturn conference that 60 percent of them could be looking for work by next year. SuperReturn bills itself as one of the leading events in private capital, and says it enables connections and insights for senior LPs and GPs in private equity, venture capital, private credit and real assets. Vista Equity Partners is one of the largest private equity firms in the world, managing over $100 billion in assets.
“We think that next year, 40% of the people at this conference will have an AI agent and the remaining 60% will be looking for work,” CEO John F Smith said at the conference. There were 5,500 attendees at the event.
Smith emphasized in his remarks at the event that “all of the jobs” currently carried out by one billion knowledge workers today would change due to AI.
“I’m not saying they will all go away, but they will all change,” Smith said. “You will have hyperproductive people in organizations, and you will have people who will need to find other things to do.”
Other leaders in finance have also hinted at job losses in the sector. Goldman Sachs’ CEO David Solomon has said that AI can now do IPO filing work in minutes, which earlier used to take 6 of his employees 2 weeks of effort previously. A host of AI agents are also looking to automate investments and trading.
Interestingly, these were some of the highest-paid jobs going around. Finance is one of the best-paid professions, and is a sought after career for many young graduates. But with AI now automating much of the work, not only could many jobs be lost, but with more people chasing the same roles, the salaries could also come down. It remains to be seen how entire business sectors cope with such changes, but with CEOs publicly telling people of mass job losses at conferences, AI-led job displacement might be closer than most people think.