FeatureC-Suite Warnings Mount While Workers Brace for AI Shake-Up
“AI is coming for your jobs. Heck, it’s coming for my job too.”
— Micha Kaufman
CEO, Fiverr
The leaked email from Fiverr CEO Micha Kaufman — later posted to X — set the tone for a debate now echoing across every boardroom: AI in the workplace. It’s an anxiety shared from factory floors to corner offices.
Roughly half of workers say they worry about AI’s impact. And a 2023 Goldman Sachs estimate put 300 million jobs worldwide in AI’s crosshairs. Yet the mood inside C-suites is far from uniform, and that divergence is already shaping how companies prepare — or fail to.
Inside the C-Suite: How Leaders Size Up AI Risk
In private meetings and public forums, executives now sort into three broad mind-sets.
| Outlook | Who Said It | Quote |
|---|---|---|
| Bleak | OpenAI’s Sam Altman | “AI is going to eliminate a lot of current jobs, and there will be classes of jobs that totally go away." (Source) |
| Bleak | Anthropic’s Dario Amodei | AI could wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs — and spike unemployment to 10-20% in the next one to five years. (Source) |
| Bright | JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon | “People have to take a deep breath. Technology has always replaced jobs. Your children are going to live to 100 and not have cancer because of technology, and literally they’ll probably be working three and a half days a week.” (Source) |
| Bright | Alphabet’s Sundar Pichai | "I expect we will grow from our current engineering phase even into next year, because [AI] allows us to do more." (Source) |
| Pragmatic | NVIDIA’s Jensen Huang | "Every job will be affected, and immediately. It is unquestionable. You’re not going to lose your job to an AI, but you’re going to lose your job to someone who uses AI.” (Source) |
Across the spectrum, 68% of CEOs say AI is reshaping functions they consider core. The split isn’t whether disruption is coming — it’s how companies respond.
Employee Reality Check: Workers Wary Yet Willing
Employees mirror that c-suite ambivalence.
More than one-third fear outright displacement, while 73% expect gen AI to radically change their workflows within two years. Paradoxically, studies also show 89% of workers feel automation makes their jobs more satisfying, and 91%say it improves work-life balance. Plus, nearly half already credit AI with higher productivity and efficiency.
The takeaway: people aren’t anti-AI. They’re anti-being-left-behind.
Jobs Most Exposed vs. Jobs Least Exposed
Only 6% of workers believe workplace AI use will lead to more job opportunities for them in the long run.
Kaufman’s leaked note flagged a familiar list of high-exposure roles: programmers, designers, product managers, data scientists, lawyers, customer support agents, salespeople and finance pros. Lower-income staff tend to agree; upper-income workers less so.
Conversely, positions that lean on empathy, strategic nuance and originality — think account strategists, creative directors, change management leads — remain comparatively safer. For now.
And what about the jobs that didn’t exist just a few years ago?
More than half of CEOs say they’re hiring for AI-adjacent positions that were unheard of 12 months ago. Kim Morick, IBM’s Global HR Technology Offering Leader, ticks off a few:
- Prompt engineers
- Model governance leads
- AI ethicists
- Change management specialists
These roles live at the crossroads of tech, strategy and operations — proof that “knowing the business” matters as much as knowing Python.
The Future-Proof Skills That Keep Humans Essential
Tiffani Murray, Director of Digital HR Strategy & Innovation, Global Talent Organization at LinkedIn, offered up a list of future-proof skills, including:
- Critical thinking
- Problem solving
- Analysis
- Collaboration
- Clear communication
Even prompt writing — “the ‘new’ coding,” Murray said — demands nuance no model can yet fake. “Even with generative AI there are skills required for AI to perform in the most optimal way. Prompt engineering is an emerging job. To perform this job it is necessary to know how to use language in a way that results in the AI providing a ‘fit-for-purpose’ response or content.”
Emotional intelligence, leadership and adaptability round of the list of skill must-haves.
AI Readiness Plan: 5 Moves for Leaders to Make Now
Across all industries, Morick said she’s seeing a major focus on upskilling and reskilling workers. In fact, CEOs believe nearly one-third of the workforce will require retraining and/or reskilling over the next three years.
“As AI becomes more embedded into day-to-day work, it’s critical that everyone has the foundational skills to use it effectively and responsibly,” she said. “Regardless of function or seniority, employees need to be critical thinkers and informed users of the technology.”
Here’s the roadmap employers need to start following now:
- Map the workflow impact. Identify tasks ripe for automation and those requiring human judgment, then share the plan openly.
- Stand up bite-size reskilling. Fast, focused modules on prompt literacy, data reasoning and AI governance build confidence quickly.
- Redesign jobs, don’t just cut them. Free people from rote work so they can tackle higher-value challenges.
- Create new career ladders. Show employees how to pivot into emerging AI roles before they polish their resumes.
- Track and iterate. Measure productivity, quality and sentiment; refine the playbook as the tech — and the people — evolve.
“In my view, reskilling related to AI should be happening at all levels,” said Murray. “There isn’t anyone in the workforce who can’t benefit [from] utilizing AI for a simple, repeatable task… We have to shift our mindsets and the mindsets of our workforce.”
Seize the Upside Before It Passes You By
AI is rearranging job descriptions, but it’s not handing out pink slips indiscriminately. Workers who master critical thinking, creativity and AI fluency will remain indispensable. Leaders who invest in reskilling and role redesign today will turn disruption into durable advantage — while everyone else scrambles to catch up.