Expect to see your local Starbucks soon be full of middle-aged former office workers, says Andrew Yang.
The Forward Party founder and former presidential candidate said AI “will kick millions of white-collar workers to the curb in the next 12 – 18 months” in a post on his Substack on Monday.
Yang said that, when a company begins to shrink its workforce, its competitors will follow suit.
“It will become a competition because the stock market will reward you if you cut headcount and punish you if you don’t,” he added.
Yang has long warned about the impact of automation on jobs — he had previously told The New York Times in 2018 that he predicted self-driving cars would displace truck drivers, a shift that could “destabilize society” and provoke “riots in the street.”
In his Substack post, Yang then laid out which workers could be vulnerable: mid-career office workers, middle managers, call center workers, marketers, and coders. The list goes on.
“Do you sit at a desk and look at a computer much of the day? Take this very seriously,” he wrote. “Millions of workers are about to be given their pink slips.”
Yang did not respond to a request for further comment.
This January saw more layoffs than any January since 2009. Though this has largely been attributed to economic uncertainty, a few companies have already begun citing AI as a reason they are letting staff go.
Pinterest said in January that it expects to lay off 15% of its workforce. A spokesperson for Pinterest said the restructuring was part of the company’s “AI-forward strategy.”
HP said in November that it would cut up to 6,000 jobs by 2028, citing AI initiatives as the reason.
Critics have also said some companies are using AI as a scapegoat for job cuts.
Tech CEOs and AI researchers are divided over how AI will impact society. While Tesla and xAI CEO Elon Musk and Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis predict a future of great abundance for all, others, such as Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, say we should brace for significant white-collar layoffs.
Yang said the impact of his predicted layoffs will be felt beyond those who actually lose their jobs.
“Let’s say you’re a dry cleaner, a dog walker, or a hairstylist. If people in your community stop going to the office, your business is going to suffer because there are fewer business shirts to launder, people will walk their dogs themselves, and cut back on trips to the salon,” he said.
“The amount of money getting paid to human labor is about to go down,” Yang said.
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