Fears that artificial intelligence will rapidly wipe out huge numbers of white-collar jobs may have been overstated, according to Sam Altman, who admitted he had previously overestimated the technology’s immediate impact on the labour market.
Speaking at an event in Australia, Altman said he had expected artificial intelligence to eliminate far more entry-level office jobs following the launch of ChatGPT in 2022.
“I’m delighted to be wrong about this. I thought there would have been more impact on entry-level white-collar jobs being eliminated by now than has actually happened,” he said.
‘No jobs apocalypse’
The OpenAI chief executive added that he no longer believed the industry was heading towards a “jobs apocalypse”, arguing that human interaction remained more important in working life than many technology leaders had initially assumed.
“I don’t think we’re going to have the kind of jobs apocalypse that some of the companies in our space advocate or talk about,” he said.
Altman said even his own experiments using AI to reply to Slack messages reinforced how much people value direct human interaction at work.
“I had it reply to messages, saying ‘This is Sam’s AI’ and it was an amazing example to me of we really do care about people. We really do care about our interactions with people and this thing, which is a huge amount of my time, is not something that I can imagine myself outsourcing to an AI anytime soon.”
He added: “I now think I understand more about why it hasn’t [eliminated a lot of jobs], and I’m obviously grateful but that is an area where my intuitions were just off”.
AI fears collide with mixed labour market picture
Altman’s comments come after years of warnings from technology executives and analysts that artificial intelligence could wipe out large sections of administrative, customer service and entry-level professional work.
Last year, Dario Amodei, the head of Claude chatbot-maker Anthropic, warned AI could eliminate half of all entry-level white-collar jobs within five years. But while some employers have introduced AI-linked redundancies, evidence of a full-scale labour market collapse has yet to emerge.
Several major companies, including Meta, Microsoft and Amazon, have announced significant job cuts linked partly to AI investment and restructuring. Research from Goldman Sachs has also suggested jobs that are easier to automate, including administrative and telephone-based roles, are beginning to see higher rates of job losses.
At the same time, many employers continue to struggle to integrate AI tools effectively into existing workflows, while employees increasingly use the technology to support tasks rather than fully replace them.
AI ‘more likely to reshape work than erase it’
Some technology specialists argued Altman’s comments reflected what many businesses are now discovering in practice, that AI changes jobs more often than it completely removes them.
Peter Fedoročko, chief technology officer at analytics platform GoodData.AI, told HRreview that fears of a mass white-collar jobs collapse had always been exaggerated.
“Sam Altman just said what we’ve been saying all along. The ‘jobs apocalypse’ has always been just a headline, a simple scaremongering technique. Every recent major platform shift; the internet, mobile, and now intelligent automation all start off looking like the end of work until they aren’t.
“What each transformative technology has actually done is eliminate the boring parts of jobs, the parts you hate, and this has allowed us to create better jobs and give people better opportunities.”
Fedoročko said some recent AI-linked redundancies may have reflected panic, over-hiring during the Covid period or uncertainty around how to implement the technology effectively.
“Altman himself admitted he was ‘pretty wrong’ on the social and economic impact of AI, so the people who have spent the last three years screaming about white-collar bloodbaths may want to do the same.
“Yes, there is no denying that there have been masses of job cuts this year, from OpenAI itself as well, and all with AI written up as the leading cause. However, the reality is that either A these companies are panicking and want to invest in AI to keep up and have no idea how to successfully integrate AI without cutting budgets or B these companies over-hired during COVID and AI is the most convenient scapegoat available.”
He added that businesses would ultimately rediscover the value of human interaction in work and customer relationships.
“At least Altman has realised that the human touch is irreplaceable. When the dust settles, companies will realise the same: we need humans in businesses because people want to do business with other people.”
William Furney is a Managing Editor at Black and White Trading Ltd based in Kingston upon Hull, UK. He is a prolific author and contributor at Workplace Wellbeing Professional, with over 127 published posts covering HR, employee engagement, and workplace wellbeing topics. His writing focuses on contemporary employment issues including pension schemes, employee health, financial struggles affecting workers, and broader workplace trends.
- William Furney
- William Furney
- William Furney
- William Furney
