“It’s the book I recommend more than any other on AI — to heads of state, business leaders, and anyone else who asks.” cnb.cx/4jmWiNP
Bill Gates thinks everyone should read his “favorite book on AI,” one that predicts artificial intelligence will change what most jobs look like — across nearly every industry — within the next five years.
The book is called “The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-first Century’s Greatest Dilemma.” Published in 2023, it was written by AI pioneer Mustafa Suleyman, who co-founded the research lab DeepMind. He sold it to Google in 2014 and now serves as CEO of Microsoft AI.
“It’s the book I recommend more than any other on AI — to heads of state, business leaders, and anyone else who asks — because it offers something rare: a clear-eyed view of both the extraordinary opportunities and genuine risks ahead,” Gates wrote in a blog post last month.
DON’T MISS: How to use AI to be more productive and successful at work
In the book, Suleyman predicted that rapid advances in AI development will completely change the way nearly every industry operates. He cited a 2023 study from consulting group McKinsey, which estimated roughly half of all “work activities” will become automated, starting as soon as 2030.
The ramifications of AI “will be hugely destabilizing for hundreds of millions who will, at the very least, need to re-skill and transition to new types of work,” Suleyman wrote. More than 400 million global workers could need to transition to new jobs or roles, according to McKinsey.
AI will help employees be more efficient — as in some cases it already does — but only at first, Suleyman wrote.
“These tools will only temporarily augment human intelligence,” he wrote. “They will make us smarter and more efficient for a time, and will unlock enormous amounts of economic growth, but they are fundamentally labor replacing.”
How to prepare for AI’s impact on the workforce
From physical manufacturing to “cognitive labor,” the AI revolution is set to touch basically every industry, Suleyman wrote.
There will eventually be “few areas” where humans can outperform machines. AI will quickly outpace human workers at office tasks like administration, customer service and content creation, according to Suleyman.
The increased input will likely result in two realities, he wrote. Employers will create millions of new jobs in response to economic growth. But not all of that work will go to humans, Suleyman notes: Employers will still opt for the “abundance of ultra-low-cost equivalents” whenever possible.
Some positions are and will be more difficult for AI to replicate. Those include skilled trades like plumbers and electricians, as well as white collar roles that rely heavily on social skills, critical thinking, and creativity.
Still, nearly everyone will likely need to upskill — and learn how to incorporate this kind of technology into their current jobs — as AI services become more prevalent in every industry over the next several years. Many others will need to transition into entirely new careers, Suleyman wrote.
That shift is already underway. A 2023 EY survey found that 41% of U.S. companies polled were implementing plans for training employees to work with AI products.
Basic AI skills — like prompt engineering, machine learning and data literacy — are a key hiring factor for nearly 70% of employers, according to a March 2024 Slack Workforce Lab survey of more than 10,000 professionals.
The monumental challenge AI poses to jobs
Some experts suggest the economic benefits of AI will create enough new jobs to outweigh those lost.
Artificial intelligence will create 78 million more positions than it eliminates by 2030, and the future of work will revolve around collaboration between humans and machines, the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 predicted earlier this month.
But even AI optimists agree that huge changes in how people work are likely to result in a period of dramatic transition. New jobs enabled by AI’s advances won’t come soon enough to rescue large portions of the global workforce, Suleyman predicted in his book.
AI will “eliminate a lot of current jobs, [and] there will be classes of jobs that totally go away,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a May 2024 discussion with MIT President Sally Kornbluth.
‘Breakthrough treatments,’ ‘innovative solutions’ and other benefits
Both Suleyman and Gates remain optimistic overall about AI’s potential to change people’s lives for the better.
If workers and leaders prepare for massive changes, everyone should be able to enjoy benefits from “breakthrough treatments for deadly diseases, innovative solutions for climate change, and high-quality education for everyone,” Gates wrote last month.
To achieve that best-case scenario, humans need to embrace AI by learning to work with new technologies as they’re implemented in their daily lives and careers, Suleyman argued.
That could start with exploring free online AI services, like ChatGPT or other AI-powered large language models. More advanced options include taking online courses to learn AI skills like prompt engineering.
“This is a monumental challenge whose outcome will, without hyperbole, determine the quality and nature of day-to-day life in this century and beyond,” wrote Suleyman.
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