AI Is Changing Jobs — But Not in the Way We Think

Recently, I had the privilege of testifying before the U.S. Senate about artificial intelligence and its transformative impact on the modern workforce. It was an opportunity to discuss an issue that is quickly becoming one of the defining economic questions of our time: What is AI actually going to do to jobs?

The conversation around artificial intelligence often gravitates toward extremes. On one side is the promise that AI will dramatically increase productivity and create entirely new industries. On the other is the fear that automation will eliminate millions of jobs. The reality emerging from the data is more complicated — and, in many ways, more interesting.



Through leading the BBB AI Hub and training thousands of business owners, nonprofit leaders and workers on the responsible use of artificial intelligence, I have come to believe that AI literacy is increasingly becoming the difference between leverage and liability. I have watched people use AI to organize complex information, improve communication, accelerate research, analyze data and turn ideas into action faster than ever before.

I have also watched people enter sensitive customer information into public AI systems, accept fabricated citations as fact, rely on biased or incomplete outputs and purchase products labeled “AI-powered” without really understanding what the technology does.

The opportunity is enormous. But so is the responsibility. And nowhere is that becoming more evident than in the workforce.

AI Is Reshaping Jobs, Not Simply Eliminating Them

PwC recently released its 2026 Global AI Jobs Barometer, analyzing more than one billion online job advertisements across six continents. One of its most important conclusions is that AI is not simply replacing jobs. Instead, it is fundamentally changing the work people perform inside those jobs.



PwC describes an emerging two-track labor market. In one category are what the researchers call “professionalised” jobs. In these positions, AI increasingly handles routine or lower-level tasks, allowing workers to concentrate on more complex work requiring expertise, judgment and creativity. In the other category are “democratised” jobs, where AI makes traditionally complex work easier to perform, lowering some of the expertise barriers that once existed. That distinction is important because the economic outcomes are already beginning to look very different.

Professionalised jobs have been growing approximately twice as fast as democratised jobs, and PwC found that salaries in professionalised occupations have grown 42% faster since 2021.

That tells us something important about the future of work. The question may not simply be, “Will AI replace this job?” A better question may be, “How will AI change what a person is expected to contribute in this job?”

The Companies Winning With AI May Actually Hire More People

One of the most fascinating findings in the PwC study challenges the common assumption that greater AI adoption automatically means fewer employees. PwC found that greater exposure to AI was associated with headcount growth rather than headcount reduction among the companies it studied. The report found that headcount growth among the most AI-exposed organizations was roughly double that of the least-exposed organizations.

Why?

Because the companies generating the greatest returns from AI do not appear to be using the technology simply to cut positions.

They are using AI to grow.

They are redesigning processes, increasing productivity, entering new markets, creating new products and services and expanding what their existing workforce can accomplish. PwC discovered an especially interesting “superstar” effect. The most AI-exposed companies overall experienced strong productivity growth, but the top-performing 20% of those organizations achieved productivity growth of approximately 163% compared with a 2018 baseline.

That may provide an important lesson for Colorado businesses. If your AI strategy is simply, “How many people can we replace?” you may be asking the wrong question.

The more powerful question is: “What could our organization accomplish if every employee became significantly more AI capable?”

The Worker of the Future Will Need AI Skills — and Human Skills

The other major shift occurring in the workforce is skills. According to PwC, the skills required in the occupations most exposed to AI are changing more than twice as fast as those in jobs with relatively little AI exposure. And there is an interesting paradox.

As AI becomes more capable, human capabilities may actually become more valuable.

PwC found that new tasks emerging in AI-exposed occupations are increasingly connected to abilities such as empathy, judgment, creativity and leadership. AI can summarize a 100-page document in seconds. But someone still needs to determine what matters.

AI can generate ten strategic options. Someone still needs the judgment to choose among them.

AI can draft an email. Someone still needs to understand the relationship, the context and the human being receiving it.

That is why I believe the future belongs neither to humans alone nor AI alone. It belongs to people who learn how to work intelligently with AI while strengthening the distinctly human capabilities technology cannot easily replicate.

Entry-Level Work May Change the Most

This transition could be particularly significant for younger workers. PwC found that highly AI-exposed entry-level jobs are now seven times more likely to require traditionally senior-level skills than entry-level jobs with low AI exposure. Those skills include team building, stakeholder management, people management, mentorship and data-driven decision-making.



That presents both a challenge and an opportunity. AI may eliminate some of the repetitive work previous generations performed early in their careers. But that also means younger workers may be expected to develop judgment, leadership and strategic thinking much earlier. This is a very important finding and one that our education and workforce systems will need to adapt accordingly.

Therefore, AI Literacy Is Becoming Workforce Literacy and the demand for AI capability is already showing up in compensation and hiring. PwC reports that workers with AI skills commanded an average 62% wage premium compared with workers in comparable roles that did not require those skills. And hiring for AI specialists grew eight times faster than overall hiring in 2025. But I do not believe every employee needs to become a machine-learning engineer. What they need is AI literacy.

They need to understand what these systems can do, where they fail, how to protect information, how to verify outputs and how to use AI as a thought partner rather than blindly accepting whatever it produces. For business leaders, responsible AI adoption means doing more than purchasing software. It means investing in your people. The organizations that thrive in the coming decade may not be those with the most AI.

They may be the organizations with the most AI-capable workforce, people who know when to use the technology, when to question it and when human judgment must remain firmly in control.

That was one of the messages I hoped to convey in Washington. The future of work is not simply about what AI can do. It is about what people can do when they learn how to use AI well.