AI & the Future of Work: Navigating Careers in the Algorithmic Era

Thank you everybody. Please get

comfortable, find a spot um or stand if

you like. That's fine. Thank you so much

for joining us and welcome to AI in the

future of work. Um really appreciate you

guys taking a few moments staying with

us here tonight. It's been a long week,

we know, but um really appreciate it and

we're grateful for that. Uh if I haven't

met you yet, my name is Ramsey Elder. I

am the co-founder of Biopul Talent.

We're a recruiting firm located here in

the Bay Area. Um, but work all across

the United States and we're all about

empowering careers and elevation teams.

So, we make sure that everybody thrives

and grows and works together and gets to

where they want to be. Um, very excited

to be here and co-hosting this event

with my really good friend Sil Cassuba.

Um, really funny story actually. Well,

actually, he's also our moderator for

the evening. So, thank you for that.

uh really funny story there. Not a funny

story, but he reached out to me on

LinkedIn. We haven't met before yet, but

he was like, "Hey, I'm good. Coming in

from New York. Let's get some coffee.

Let's meet real quick." And we did that

and um now we're here. We had we kind of

bounced some ideas off each other.

Thought this would be a great idea. And

it's really cool to see this come to

fruition and we're really grateful for

that. Um with that, yes, get

comfortable. Looks like you guys are.

That's fine. Um, I want to introduce you

guys to Lauren Louie right here. Uh,

Lauren is a founder herself, content

creator, and she's actually in the

running for the Forbes 30 under 30 list

at the moment. So, you might see her

around.

>> Yes. Very confident.

Um, you might see her around taking

pictures, videos. Um, so don't be shy.

Say hi. And if you're comfortable, uh,

she might ask you for a little

testimonial of the evening and how it

went. So, um, also everything that she

records tonight, all the content is

going to be sent to all your emails. So,

please don't feel like you need to

record anything. Just be in the moment,

enjoy it, and meet some new people. And

with that, I want to pass it over to

Sil.

>> Hi everyone. How's it going? Thanks for

joining us here on Friday. Uh, I know

it's the almost the end of tech week. I

know you probably had other options, but

I'm glad you know you came here. made

the right decision obviously. Um, so

yeah, today we want to talk about, you

know, let me introduce myself a little

bit too. My name is Silasa and I run

Smart Talent AI. As the name implies,

we're a talent organization. Uh we're an

AI consulting firm and uh yeah like like

Ramsey was saying we met for coffee a

couple months ago and uh we're like hey

let's you know there's there's a lot of

hype about AI and like the workplace and

how it's affecting you know uh you know

future jobs right so let's let's let's

get together get some brilliant minds

together to talk about this topic and

here we are today so I'm glad you're all

part of this and I'm glad uh you know we

got these guys here together so I want

to introduce uce our wonderful panelists

that have joined us today. Um so Bar

Chander here if you want to just wave

he is an economist and a researcher from

Stanford University not terribly far

away. He's put out an excellent research

uh study uh around this topic which

we'll definitely get into today. Um and

uh you know he he's coming at it from an

economist and research angle which I

think will be very beneficial to this

conversation. So thank you again brother

B for joining Janade um Janed is a kind

of trade you know jack of all trades

he's worked in cyber security and AI

deep tech um smart cities you name it

he's been in government and he has a

very practitioners view of uh how we can

apply AI these days um so loving uh that

he's here as well to join this

conversation and then last but obviously

not least Dimmitro uh is here from the

mount uh from uh the Silicon Valley area

as well. He is a certainly a uh great AI

practitioner and he's been uh exploring

with AI, robotics and several different

technologies over the last several years

and uh we're just lucky to have these

three brilliant minds here together

today. So, thank you for joining us

today. Um,

so I'm going to start off with a

question that is, I think, on everyone's

minds, including mine, for sure. Um,

it's it's kind of a overarching question

that I think would be a great start to

this conversation. And Janate, I I think

you drew the short straw, so I'm gonna

I'm gonna pick on you first and but I

want everyone involved obviously. Um, so

obviously, you know, AI like is it like

what do we think about how it's

affecting our economy from a job market

standpoint? We'd love to hear, you know,

your general thoughts on the job market

and AI and uh yeah, we can go from there

and then we'd love to

>> uh yeah

question

I mean, so uh I think there's two

important things I want to uh talk about

and it has to do with the negativity

around AI. And the two most negative

points on AI is a it's taking jobs away

and that's all it's going to do. And the

second thing that's very negative about

AI is it's going to consume a lot of

energy and wipe out human you know and

if you look at all the press it's either

around uh job loss or energy consumption

and the thing I wanted to say is those

are both incorrect for uh one structural

reasons and technology reasons.

If you look at AI, the benefit to the

macro economy is huge in five important

areas. Energy consumption,

transportation manufacturing

agriculture, and healthcare. And let me

give you a plain English example of all

five. Uh starting with energy around the

world, you know, people use electricity

and we have buildings where the lights

are turned on even when there's nobody

there. We have buildings that are airond

conditioned that are when they're

they're empty. So using smart energy

where it's able to manage the use of

energy is a win for all of us, right?

Because this is wasted energy. So AI's

value there is huge. Let's talk about

transportation. We've got a billion cars

in the world and at any one point a car

is stuck behind a red light when there's

no other cars in the intersection. Using

AI to let cars go through is a win for

all of us because right now cars are

stuck in traffic for no reason. If you

look at manufacturing,

uh we have product losses uh from

manufacturing defects which AI can fix.

Uh if you look at uh health care, AI is

be able to look at clinical data and now

create uh custom uh programs for you in

terms of pharmaceuticals, right? And

then finally, if we look at agriculture,

AI and robotics is being used to find

weeds to remove them from a farm without

pesticides. If you look at all of these

five cases, each one represents about a

trillion dollars in savings to the

global economy. And this is a trillion

dollars from waste that you know a car

that sits idle doesn't help us as

humanity, right? Also all five areas are

example of distributed AI not AI running

in a gigantic data center. This is AI

running at the edge. So if you look at

all of the work in Silicon Valley from

open AI rock to um meta. Uh each one of

them has deployed downloadable AI edge

models that do not run in a big data

center. So the reason I wanted to share

these five examples from you, these five

building blocks

uh touch all of our lives and are

foundational to the global economy. AI

in on average is representing a1

trillion dollar improvement in these

different spaces. So if you look at the

global economy, you know, depending how

you count it, roughly 300 billion, oh

sorry, 300 trillion, uh United States is

three uh 30 trillion out of the uh 300

trillion or I think

I think it's 60 trillion. So those

infrastructure investments help all of

us as a global society. And then out of

that you say well that's great. How does

that help the companies here? Out of

those productivity gains the rest of the

economy benefits. If you're supplying in

manufacturing, if you're working in

healthcare, if you're working in travel

and this I think is where you're going

to see huge uh new jobs being created.

So I think the key for all of us is a to

understand the macro view of what's

happening globally and how AI will shift

the global economy in a better direction

and then closer to what you guys do

which is like okay with this global

shift how does a company create a

strategy how do you hire what's your

thing but I think the key thing is uh

things are going to uh radically change

but I think we should all realize and

focus on the the growth area and not get

too um uh caught up in the job loss or

the big data center. I think those are

much more transitory. So yeah, that's uh

so hopefully that makes sense. I person

would love to hear the other very smart

people here.

>> Thank you J. Yeah, if you want to from

your angle.

>> Great. Thanks. Uh I I think that's a

very helpful start. So I'm going to just

I guess give a brief overview of our

research and what we found. So there's

been a lot of speculation about how AI

might affect jobs obviously uh

especially for entry- level workers.

There's been some kind of speculation

that the entry- level job market has

been deteriorating because of in part

because of AI. So we wanted to bring

some hard data to this and the way we

did that is we use this partnership with

a company called ADP which is largest

payroll software provider in the United

States and via this partnership we could

track employment for millions of workers

across the US economy uh basically in

real time. Our data goes through July

2025. So we wanted to kind of dig into

the numbers here and see what was

happening for employment for different

types of workers. And we did in fact

find that for entry-level workers in

these more AI exposed jobs such as

software development, customer service,

etc., the job market is pretty

significantly declined. And you don't

see that for young workers in jobs that

are less exposed to AI. And you don't

see that for more experienced workers,

you know, kind of regardless of whether

they're in more AI exposed jobs or less

AI exposed jobs. So, of course, there

are a lot of alternative explanations

for why this might be happening. You

know, you could think of tech over

hiring, return from work from home, you

know, maybe education is deteriorating,

etc. So, we we tested a lot of these

alternatives. We get similar results if

we take out the tech sector, take out

computer jobs, uh only look at jobs that

can't be worked remotely, uh look at

college graduates, non-ol graduates,

etc. So, we did a lot of alternative

analyses to kind of test these results

and they were pretty robust. we were

still finding this relationship between

entry level employment in AI exposed

jobs and declining employment over the

past couple years. Now I do want to

emphasize uh that we don't know that

these trends are going to continue going

forward. Historically technology has you

know destroyed a lot of jobs. It's also

created new work. That's why today the

unemployment rate is under 5%. is

because all the new technologies that

have replaced prior work have also

created new work or created new demand

for existing work that have enabled

people to find new work and you know

there might have been displacement from

se some sectors but new demand created

in other sectors consequently so the

question is really will AI be different

than prior technologies

uh you know will they will it continue

to create new forms of work where people

can continue to find you know gainful

employment or will additional work

that's created also be start to be done

by AI and I think that's a very open

question we don't know one way or the

other uh and you know we need to

continue to track these things on an

ongoing basis to understand that

>> thank you

let me give my very practical

perspective on

um on all of these aspects um one add a

little bit more to any examples where AI

will will benefit the society in short

term and in fact it's already

benefiting. Um I hope you have noticed

that that the vehicles on on the road u

are getting much safer every single year

and and that trend will continue to

happen. At this point of time the

manufacturers already exhausted majority

of the opportunities to make them safe

safer from mechanical perspective. So

where they go? They go into into the

software. They're going into active

safety features

and uh

many new vehicles on the road already

have have those features and they are

saving lives right now. Uh this trend is

going to continue and AI is going is

going to help with that too.

Um going back to the comment of uh the

hiring process, I can tell you in

exactly what happens in my particular

situation. I'm a hiring manager. I um I

have the decision power and at this

point of time I I tend not to hire new

talent uh not to hire the uh

the young talent. The reasons for that

is is not AI. I don't have any fears of

of AI. The reasons are uh purely

economical at this point in time. It um

it is it is a time of certain

uncertainty

and uh uncertainty

times to squeeze budgets on all levels

and uh and that forces those type of

decisions. I believe this is temporary.

This is going to end. And also I believe

that uh that the companies overall

should actually take more responsibility

to society and and uh and hire more

young people. Thank you.

>> Thank you all for that. Um so I want to

kind of piggyback on a couple of things

that I just heard. So, uh, Deitra, I

thought you had a really good take or

good interesting take on on, you know,

as a hiring manager, your perspective on

hiring, uh, early career professionals.

I guess on that note, I would love to

hear from the three of you, especially

because we have a lot of young

professionals here. What would your

advice be for them in this era? Um, as

far as what degrees to pursue, you know,

looks like you're ready to go. So,

>> very good question.

There are two things that I'm asking

everyone during the job interview and

I'm personally doing the

the cultural interviews for the entire

company and uh there are two things that

I deeply care about. One is uh how

people learn, how fast can they learn

because no matter uh how good the person

is, you still need to learn on a job a

lot really really a lot. Your baseline

is is very important. Your background is

important. But the most important thing

is how fast can you learn? That's thing

number one. Thing number two is uh what

is your attitude towards the change? Do

you embrace the change? Do you seek

opportunities in the change? Or you

don't like the change? You fear the

change and and you want to stay stable

in in my environment. uh staying stable

is is simply impossible because uh the

company is running very very fast and

building things and uh unfortunately

people who who like stability will not

be successful. I'm sure there are many

organizations that are not like that. uh

but uh in in case when when change is

inevitable

um people need to learn how to deal with

that.

Uh so my big advice to young people

especially if they're in school or

university is try to create an app, put

it out there uh because AI has become

lethal in generating

uh resumes that aren't real. And one of

the things the the only countermeasure

to that is um really being able to show

something. And it is so easy to create

an app these days. It is so inexpensive

to launch it. Do it in your field. You

know, show that you are a fullstack

developer. So when you meet someone like

Demetri

and he says, "What what have you done?"

They can say, "Yeah." He said, "Look,

I've actually done this and look, it's

live. It's online. You can uh" and I I

think that makes a big difference where

they can actually point to the work

versus just saying they're a full

Everybody says they're a full stack

developer. Everybody says they know how

to use Grock and OpenAI. Everybody says

they know how to download llama and do

it and they know these models but I mean

you know you say it but show it and and

I think that is a good way to

differentiate yourself and have a better

interview especially with a tough guy

like this. I mean I'd be scared

I'd leave the interview.

>> Uh I I actually want to uh just kind of

second the two points that were made

right now. I I agree that it's easier

today to build something from scratch

than it's ever been in history. And I

think especially for the type of person

who comes to SF Tech Week, uh you know,

I would encourage you to do that. I

think uh there's a lot of opportunity

that didn't exist in the past and it's

important to try to make use of that,

gain some experience building something.

I would certainly uh you know, second

those ideas.

>> Thank you all. Um another question I

have around this topic but more uh you

know with a practical application to it.

I'm curious for all your takes on so

clearly you know we're talking about

entry- level jobs and you know how AI

could be potentially an accelerator uh

if you know applied in that direction of

course um so we hear a lot about AI and

upskilling right and that that's kind of

the buzzword now which you know even

just some conversation I was having

before we started talking today that

that was brought up do you all think

given you know the the displacement

issues that are occurring in specific

fields

uh that upskilling can alone fill you

know fill this gap or fill this void or

do you think we need more systemic

changes? I know I know it's a pretty

broad question and depends on the

industry but I'm just kind of curious on

your take on the strategy companies need

to be facing uh or employing rather uh

when it comes to uh you know upskilling.

So that

>> I think we're still very much in the

early days of understanding this. And I

think part of the reason for that is we

don't quite know yet and we haven't

developed the tools yet for

understanding how AI can help people do

this kind of upskilling. You know, one

of the reasons that I got very

interested in AI is that I started using

it to learn and I, you know, I was

learning all about like neural networks

and learning about how the transformer

models work and it was just insanely

good at helping me learn that like I

could ask any question and get a perfect

answer immediately and that is something

that has never existed before. And I

think we are still trying to understand

how we can use these technologies to

help people learn very quickly. And it's

possible that as we develop tools to

speed up education and streamline

people's ability to learn, it can really

help people upskill much more quickly

than they're currently doing. And I

think we're still in the very early

stages of understanding, you know, if

and how that might happen.

Uh I think the the problem with the word

upskilling uh it talks about a linear

relationship that you're doing something

today then you added AI and you're doing

the same thing with AI. I think that's

too narrow and too tight. I think AI is

actually radically restructuring our

global economy. As I mentioned it's

going to happen at a foundational level

in the transportation, agriculture,

medical, uh healthcare. I mean these are

huge and that's going to ripple through

the economy. What I'd like people to

think about is actually reinterpreting

yourself. That is take all the skills

you've built up in your education and

your job then look at AI and then take a

clean sheet approach to yourself and uh

a small plug here. Uh so I've been

working with Sunil on u creating a

generative AI app that actually does

that. So we we have a alpha version. and

it basically takes your uh background

and then it reinterprets it and it's a

kind of generation one but the the

results are pretty powerful and I really

think people really need to look at

themselves as a basket of skills that

through AI they can do many other things

not saying oh I worked at a factory and

I'm going to work at a factory with AI

that's too narrow and I I think you're

just asking for trouble so you know the

econ economy is going to make a radical

shift.

Give yourself the most options.

>> Yeah, I fully agree with that. So if you

um if you face uncertainty, you may want

to stop hyperspecializing and maybe look

wide

and uh that will allow you to get more

options potentially.

I will likely say it over and over over

again. The first thing that everybody

needs to do is is not to have any fear

because fear stopped stops us uh from

thinking.

And uh I think we began our conversation

on the note that there are a lot of uh

negative press about AI and and the

reason for that is that negative press

actually get gets more attention then

they get they got more views uh they got

more money. Uh the reality is uh is

actually very different and uh only only

those people who will actively seek

opportunities because these are the

opportunities of a lifetime.

Such technological advancement may

actually never happen within the next

100 years. We don't know that. So

embrace this opportunity. See how you

can uh ride this wave.

Thank you.

>> So, I wanted to migrate a little bit to

midle, but before I do that, um I know

there's a number of young professionals

right here. So, I wanted to see if

there's a question from any of our or

entry level professionals uh here that,

you know, while we're on this topic want

to ask a question or want to agree or

disagree with any of the points or

don't be shy.

I'm not young, but

>> you definitely are.

>> I don't have a job.

>> You need a

>> something that I'm interested

>> something I'm like I'm interested to

throw into the mix is since the

industrial revolution. So I was recently

in Mumbai of all places and got asked to

speak at a conference about the future

of employment and the future of

recruitment and everyone's paralyzed

with fear because the reality is you

don't need people driving cars or

lawnmowers or cleaning or building or

doing any of that stuff.

And Janade, you and I were at that

vianese restaurant down in San Jose

one night talking about this this

existential crisis of in our lives we

aspire to get to a point where we can be

a self-funded retiree. Let us say like

you know you've got enough assets and

enough money and enough means that you

can

um support yourself. And yet since the

industrial revolution, all we've done is

find different and more complex ways to

spend 80 hours a week working in jobs

that we don't like. So what I throwing

out like a like an actual existential

question. Where's the bit where all the

technological innovation that we tell

ourselves is making us more efficient

when we've got elevators and high-rise

buildings and travelers and Whimos

and yet then someone goes to the gym 2

hours after work cuz they didn't take

the stairs and our parents are in age

care and our children are in daycare and

like I think the real challenge is we

have economic models driving this not

like social

models and I just want to throw that

into the conversation. Because there's

an assumption that everyone has to have

a job. I would like to take that like AI

has and trash it and say, couldn't we

all just work one day a week and then go

and do actual good things and be with

our kids and our parents and our friends

and and like this just this underlying

assumption that you have to work. Like

surely we've created a technology bigger

than God now. Seriously.

>> And that is trying to find ways for us

to work for it. It just seems like a a

human created nonsense and I just wanted

to be controversial and get that

conversation going.

>> I'd like to thank Corey who's running

for the presidents of France position

now that the president got kicked out

and and uh he's now promoting one day a

week work versus four. So that that's

his platform. You heard it right there.

Uh I think there is a downside to the

global economy that Corey pointed out

which is harsh. That is number one we

are in a global economy. It doesn't

matter where you live or work you're

competing with everybody else on the

planet on where you live and work. And

you know going back to when I meet young

people you know I do talk about the

opportunity but the downside or the

opposite side of the coin or the knife

is we are in a global economy. And what

this really means is you've got to be

very good at what you do. Uh there is no

free ride whether you live in the United

States, India or China. And we see this

right? So pick something you love

whatever it is mathematics, science,

medicine.

Something you love that you are happy to

do it every day irrespective of your

salary low or high or free because it's

going to go up and down but because you

love it you're in it. And then that is

something you become better at. This

notion of having a job and a career, I

think sadly from a global structural

perspective is gone. I think I I'm not

an economist, but I really think it's an

aspect of after the Second World War, we

had a period of stability and you could

have the career job in Japan or in

America, and now that's replaced with a

fluid, competitive environment that is

very brutal and very mean to not just

young people, but anybody. So, the only

safety you have is that you're very good

at something, whatever it is. Maybe

you're interested in food, maybe you're

interested in art, maybe you're

interested in agriculture. And you just

get really good at that and you use AI

to amplify that. Uh, and you help people

in different ways. And that is your job

security. And I I think that's one of

the new realities uh, young people face,

but also all of us face.

>> Yeah. Thanks. Uh, I fully agree with

with everything. I just want to add in

order to become great at anything you

need to spend time and and energy.

How do you do it? You you need to pick

something that you will like and it will

just come automatically. I personally

was blessed to pick my profession early

on um way before college. uh but uh I

have seen many people like my kids for

example they don't they don't know what

what they're going to be and that's one

of the biggest shortcomings

um because finding yourself finding

something that is aspirational to you uh

finding um

a job that uh will not just give you

money but give you joy And happiness is

uh is probably the most important part

because eventually no matter what this

job is, you will become great at it. And

when you become great at it, it will be

extremely hard for any new technologies

including AI to displace you.

In uh the 1930s, a very famous economist

named John Maynard Kanes actually said

that he expected by the time his

children had grown up that we would all

be working 15-hour work weeks. And uh it

turned out that he was very wrong about

that. The the reason he thought that is

because you know the economy grows over

time and he expected that by the time

that we reach some some level of

consumption some level of material

um you know goods that we can produce

for ourselves that people won't want to

work as much and it turned out that that

was not true. We have become far richer

than we were back then in the 1930s

especially at the upper end. You know

people are way richer than they used to

be back then. You can purchase all sorts

of goods that were not possible at that

time, but people still work and people

choose to do that. Now, sociologically,

like is it good that they're doing that?

Uh why are they choosing to do that

instead of just retiring? I think is a

very interesting question. But, you

know, historically that's been the case

that even as new technologies come out,

even as we become richer, people find

ways to occupy their time via formal

employment. And you know, is that going

to continue going forward? Is that like

normatively the correct thing that

should be happening? I I'm not sure, but

uh you know, it doesn't necessarily have

to be that way.

>> Thanks all. I really appreciate this. I

know we can probably have a conversation

around just this topic for the entire

night, but just to keep things moving, I

do want to ask one more question of the

panelists and then I want to hand it

over to you all because I think you all

have very interesting insights to share

as well. Um, obviously we've talked a

lot about entry level roles. Um, but I

would love to hear and you know this is

a little selfish of me because I'm also

mid-level now and I try not to remind

myself of that a lot but I guess I am

now. Um what would you guys recommend

for mid-level professionals that you

know are going through this

transformation after having worked you

know 15 20 years in a in a career or

careers uh you know without automation

as easy as it is today. uh what would

you uh suggest to those folks that are

suddenly seeing you know their jobs

radically changing at some you know with

with with certain aspects of that uh

being true um I'll hand it over to you

>> there's two things I'll say about this I

think uh one in terms of your own

professional development and skill

development and things like that I think

there's a lot of things that AI can

obviously not do right now and that's a

lot of you know working together with

other people understanding the needs of

the business collaborating with

different people and understanding the

requirements

uh you know a lot of the implementation

as well but I I think this kind of like

management up and down and understanding

the different needs are things that

people especially in the middle layer

are uniquely well suited to do now I

think so I think continuing to cultivate

those skills is likely quite important

you know the things that differentiate

humans from AI as it is right now for

sure. I think cultivating those skills

is quite important and then I think on

the other side uh in terms of

you know how it relates to hiring and

things like that you know a lot of these

people are the ones who are hiring the

entry- level workers and I would I think

encourage people to think about more

creative ways to use young people at

work. I don't think necessarily, you

know, if we do progress to a world where

AI is replacing a lot of the work that

entry level people have been doing in in

these jobs historically, like I think we

should think of more creative ways of

hiring and developing and using them at

work than, you know, maybe we've been

doing more recently.

I I think the challenge for uh mid-level

people is uh similar to the very young

people I just mentioned. We're in a

global economy. So there is no job

security. Even if the people you work

for like you and you like them, in a

global economy, any company can be wiped

out by any other econom uh country. And

we see that uh you know whether or not

you like President Trump's tariffs. It

did start because people in foreign

countries were wiping out American

companies. So, President Trump

retaliated. Of course, that's creating

other problems. But the lesson for us is

the uh underpriced export was pretty

aggressive to start with. So, where does

this take the mid-level executive?

Because I know people are losing their

jobs around the world. I think your only

job security ends up being your own

brand that people know you're an expert

in something not only in the country you

live in but around the world because

your next job might be for someone in

some other part of the planet. So, how

would they even know you exist unless

you exist as a brand? And that doesn't

mean you have to be as good as Lauren,

who's a social influencer and a Forbes

30. But, uh, it does mean that you have

to take the extra step to package

yourself so that people even know you

exist. And because the idea that you

only create a resume when you lose a

job, it's it's not going to work because

nobody even knows who you are and

nobody's going to magically see that

resume. They need to know you're an

expert in that field while you're at

your job so that you can roll over to

something else. And that's a new way to

think about yourself. That and that's

uncomfortable for 99% of people. People

like to work hard and get rewarded. I

don't think unfortunately that's not

enough. People have to know who you are

and that adds an extra burden. But I I

think that is the reality of the global

economy we live in. It's it can lead to

a good lifestyle but it is very harsh

and brutal and we see that around us. So

I I I think that's uh something we just

have to manage.

>> Thank I actually want to add

what I was thinking.

Anyway um

I would like to give more practical

advice. So imagine uh you are

in your midcareer. Congratulations.

Very likely you you know how to do

something very well. Look at the

economic value of that. If there's no

economic value of what you are doing,

there's concept of jobs. Then

you're in trouble because you will

likely be automated first. So you need

to act accordingly. Now if you find the

economic value to be very positive,

embrace it. See how can you provide even

more value. How can you you utilize

those new technologies to be even more

productive or enable more people ride

this wave of AI? uh don't try to block

it because well fortunately or

unfortunately the um technological

advancements cannot be stopped. It

probably can but I don't know how to do

that.

>> Thanks all. So I I do have other

questions but I'm going to I want to

pause with my questions. I want to hand

it over to you all now. Um as I know

we're being cognizant of time. So

please, the floor is all yours now.

>> Um, first I want to say that it was good

to hear that now being called a basket

case could be taken as a compliment. As

long as your basket case of skills,

>> it's a compliment. That's good.

And yesterday I attended an event um

where one of the

founders said that said the a phrase

that kind of stuck with me and I I just

going to repeat it and I want your take

on it. He said that every company now

has a choice either uh a higher employee

or a build one.

And so what do you think of it?

>> Let's take this.

>> So I I think what the person is

referring I'll repeat the statement. You

either hire someone or you build one. So

if you look at AI over the last few

months just this summer it's made a

monumental leap. When AI just started at

the beginning of this year oh it seems

so long ago. Chat GPT's main function

was Google search right and Google

search it was just a better Google

search since that time AI has made a

huge leap in generative AI uh and then

aentic AI and you know just six months

ago that was utter fantasy it was utter

fantasy so generative AI is you take an

incomplete data set and it actually

generates the new data from from

inference and agentic is it makes a

thought I I think to your question,

those systems have come online only this

summer, but it gives companies the

ability to synthesize an employee. Not

perfect, but the fact that they can even

do it is revolutionary from a pure

technical perspective. Now, what it

means from a job perspective, it takes

us full circle. Simple jobs are highly

vulnerable. So if you look at an

accounting department, no need, as he

said, to hire a young accountant for a

senior accountant. They can just

synthesize uh a junior accountant based

on what the senior person says. New York

law firms have already stopped hiring

young lawyers because they just take the

partner's old contracts, whatever they

are, and then they ingest them into the

AI and now they synthesize a a

parallegal who's a reflection of that.

So I think we're already seeing this

radical restructuring of simpler jobs

and it is very sad for young people

because those are the jobs. Uh but I

think this is why you know we're saying

don't define yourself as a young person

with a small skill set. Find a a greater

goal because even if you got a job this

year as a young person doesn't mean you

can't be wiped out three months from

now. Right? So you you need to see

yourself as a as a bigger person, as an

intelligent person. You need to said

become an expert in something. And yeah,

there might be times where you make

money and you don't make money, but stay

at that and then you keep going on. And

I think this is the harsh reality that

everybody in this room lives in. So

there there's no point sugar coating the

world we live in. But I I think uh in

this harsh reality there there's a

chance I I do believe we will be in a

better place, but it's going to require

everybody to think much more critically

of themselves, pass it on to an expert

than the theory.

>> Well, I'm not sure. Uh I I think that

was actually a very great point that uh

was just raised. I I think the one other

thing I'll add to this is I do think

we're limiting ourselves a little bit if

we're just thinking are we going to

build an employee or hire one. like it

doesn't necessarily have to be that

they're directly substitutable with each

each other. There's a lot of ways in

which AI can't perform certain things

that humans can and in those senses like

the AI can be complimentary to a hire as

well and you know we shouldn't get like

stuck in the idea that they have to be

like in direct competition with each

other. There are ways in which AI can

complement human work as well and I

think we should keep an open mind about

those types of possibilities too.

I'll be very pragmatic. If I will have

capability to hire perfect engineer to

my team that will start

um making benefits to the company on the

day one, I'll be very happy to do it

right away. The practice shows that's

not possible. It it might be possible

for some simple jobs that uh that we

know have the higher chance to be to be

invited unfortunately. And uh

uh now in in my specific case uh it I'm

I'm trying to create a balance. So uh

people should have some initial skills

uh to ramp up slightly faster than

others. And uh my

expected ramp up period is is just a few

months. So if you can ramp up and learn

everything within within a few months,

you should be good.

But for that you have you should have a

solid baseline

and you need an ability to learn very

very quickly on the job. That's the

reality of uh of things in the rapidly

growing industries

simply because when we're getting

students freshly out of college, their

knowledge is already outdated by few

years sometimes. And uh the only thing

that helps is their capability of

learning very very quickly.

Thanks. I have a question about

credentiing and the higher education and

brands specifically like now that

Stanford is up on the screen the role of

brands um in securing for entry level or

even more senior level jobs the that

that totem hall of brands and

credentiing in higher education

Next question. Who wants to go forward?

>> I I think there's a couple answers to

this question. So one is I do think what

we should expect should be very

different in different types of

institutions. I don't think the job

market for Stanford graduates is the

same as the job market for people coming

out of a you know mid-tier state school

or something. So I you know I do think

that there's a lot of potential

differences across different parts of

the population. Now the other side of

that um I was actually I've been talking

to some policy makers about this about

how they think about credentiing. You

know should they reduce regulations

around credentiing so that it's easier

for people to switch into other careers

and uh you know develop those skills and

and access those jobs faster than

they're currently doing. I do think that

that's a very interesting question and

you know can we also speed up the

process in which they can learn? Can we

use AI to help people learn those types

of skills faster? I think these are all

just great questions and um I hope that

people in this room or outside of it,

you know, work on developing those types

of tools to help people adjust more

quickly and learn more quickly.

>> I uh uh I'll give a more technical

response. I think one of the interesting

things about AI that I'm just

experimenting now with uh my bubble's in

the back of the room is uh he was

approached by it e to look at their

online education. So I e is one of the

the world's largest engineering group

and they wanted to look at uh AI and

online from a fresh perspective. So what

they have is massive amounts of smart

people and what they do for online

education today is you you watch a video

and if you watch enough videos you get a

credential and some cases they might

connected with the university and you do

a exam. So he said how would AI do this?

So now you have a real human presenter,

an expert from Stanford and instead of

just watching the video, imagine you get

a popup and the popup asks the question

based on the live

statement that would just happened a few

seconds ago because the AI is listening

to the speaker and says, "What do you

think?" And now you can have 30 people

or 60 people around the world and the AI

can look deep into their answer and not

only provide feedback but share it with

all the other online respondents and the

speaker. Right? So AI really allows us

to rethink how we do things like online

education which are hugely powerful for

those who are motivated. Right? So I

mean we're we're there's a theme you

have to want to become smarter. You have

to want to learn AI. You have to learn

to master some AI in the field of

something. Whatever it is you love.

Could be uh running a hotel, could be

restaurant, could be building a car. And

and I think those kids and individuals

will succeed and be able to leverage uh

you know what universities are doing and

MIT is doing in terms of open

courseware. Um, if you don't do that, I

I I think it's it's going to be rough

the other direction. And um, you know,

so I think we're going to see potential

more extremes in the economy. We're

going to see young kids who are

motivated do better and better globally.

And I think we're going to see, you

know, people who struggle going to

they're going to be pushed the other

way. And um, there's a different issue.

What do we do with everybody who

struggles? But I I think you know on the

the upside is it's going to give great

opportunities for people who are

motivated.

>> I believe that the high education

requirement for white collar jobs is uh

is a thing of the past and I hope it

will go away eventually.

Founder of Luminar Austin Russell is a

Stanford dropout.

He went to Stanford went on top I think

on he dropped out after the first year.

He did not need education formal

education in order to build to build a

great companies and there are many

people uh like that at this point of

time uh everyone can get education very

cheaply or even for free that will land

them amazing job. As a hiring manager, I

I don't really care which university the

person's from. I frankly I don't care if

if the person actually went to the

university. My first question would be

show me what you did. Show me what you

did within the university. And by the

way, uh, universities are great for for

building this muscle for

talking to other people, uh,

collaborating,

um, getting some initial knowledge, uh,

pushing people to build things. But it

doesn't mean that you cannot do the same

in in your garage with your friends.

If you are building amazing things in in

your garage with your friends anywhere

and you can demonstrate that you can

land a job in in many companies.

However, unfortunately in in the

corporate envir in in the modern

corporate environment it is uh still a

formal requirement uh to have higher

education but I believe it will slowly

go away. Thank you.

Of course, being at Stanford is still

impressive.

>> Well, thank you all. Uh let's do one

more and then um we can certainly

continue the conversation, you know, but

uh

>> over drinks.

>> Over drinks, which is probably

preferable for on a Friday, right? So,

>> here we go.

>> Uh so, um my question is around job

hopping. So as you might know we

mentally have this blockage that someone

who does not stay in a job for a very

long amount of time is considered

unstable by normal norms but as you can

see the industry sometimes it's it's

crazy about blockchain sometimes it's

about influencer marketing sometime it's

about energy sometime it's about AI

agents so

how do you see people who are shifting

jobs within a year and I I would like to

uh I mean one of the startup founders uh

who is a SAS successful SAS founder said

that uh uh I mean uh he said to me that

one of the most biggest red flags is of

hiring is to take people who just by a

fit of emotion change the companies. Uh

but for me me and my friend both were at

the same level and he claimed that if

you jump jobs too quick no one will hire

you. But at this point of time, five

years from now, just because of jumping

jobs pretty quickly, sometimes even less

than a year, I'm earning five times more

than him. So I'm just curious how is

this judgment working and how does that

do?

I am the person who is taking exactly

those decisions. So I am the person who

is looking at the resume and and this is

indeed the thing that I am I'm

personally checking.

Um

the fast answer to this question it

depends. So if you um if you switch jobs

and you cannot explain why that's a red

flag.

If you can explain what is happening and

and by the way that there are many life

circumstances that that is forcing

people to to change the jobs against the

will

and that's okay that can happen but if

uh if you do it continuously so there is

a trend then uh the trend can really

provide a red flag. I personally uh put

a lot of a lot of effort in in every

single individual and uh I'm growing

everyone in in my team and uh uh when

when everybody

what when the person is leaving my team

it is uh it is not uh considered a loss

or something like that. I consider that

as a graduation because I'm I'm

graduating the person into into another

life and and we celebrate. So, so that's

a great thing. But if uh if the person

is changing job every single year,

um I'm asking the question why this is

happening. Is there something wrong with

these companies or there there's there

something wrong with people? And

unfortunately I have seen uh many things

in in the workplace. Uh I have seen many

toxic people and uh and those toxic

people are are basically

job popping from one company to another

and uh spreading negative vibes and and

this is not what I want because I want

everybody on my team uh uh to be happy.

So overall,

uh, don't fear changing jobs, but be

ready to explain why you're doing it.

Thank you.

>> Actually, I've never had a job.

>> Uh, yeah, I I think Demetro, you know,

made some very good points. The only

thing that I'll add to that I guess is

uh it is important to not be closed off

to opportunities. You know, if there are

great opportunities out there, you

should keep an open mind about them and

not be stuck in doing something

especially if you don't like it just

because you think you need more tenure.

You know, you should be keeping an open

mind about good opportunities that are

out there and meeting people and talking

to people and things like that.

Thank you so much everyone for your

wonderful questions and engaging

conversation. Jana, Demetro, and I can't

take thank you guys enough. Well,

anyway, like I said, we can continue

this conversation just over food and

drinks that are waiting for us. So,

thank you all. Let's give everyone a

round of applause.

Yeah, let's enjoy the rest of the

evening. Thanks again for everyone uh

attending. Take care.

>> Great. Thank you.

I can't even get the Stanford parking.

[Music]

>> Thank you so much.