Goldman Sachs CEO: Concerns that AI will cause massive unemployment are "overstated"
As artificial intelligence accelerates its penetration into all industries, pessimistic narratives around AI destroying the job market continue to intensify. However, the CEO of Goldman Sachs has published an article refuting this narrative.
On May 22, Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon published an article in The New York Times, pointing out that worries about an "employment apocalypse and mass unemployment" triggered by AI are "exaggerated."
He believes that AI will not eliminate jobs, but will push workers toward higher-value tasks, and create entirely new positions around the management, deployment, verification, and regulation of AI.
David Solomon also acknowledges that this technological transformation will inevitably bring structural pains to the labor market.
Goldman Sachs economists predict that in the next decade, AI may automate 25% of current work hours, with white-collar industries such as banking, law, accounting, software, and customer service facing particularly significant impacts.
This position echoes voices in the venture capital sector. Previously, Andreessen Horowitz co-founder Marc Andreessen publicly stated that the unemployment panic triggered by AI is a "false narrative", and expects that AI will overall drive job growth in the economy.
David Solomon Directly Addresses the "Employment Apocalypse": History Has Repeatedly Disproved It
In his article titled "I Am the CEO of Goldman Sachs, the AI Employment Apocalypse Is Exaggerated," David Solomon cites several technological revolutions in U.S. economic history as evidence.
From electrification and the automotive industry to the popularization of personal computers, after each wave of technological impact, overall employment levels and people's living standards have continued to rise.
He believes AI is likely to follow this historical pattern: while phasing out some positions, it will expand others.
He uses hyperscale cloud computing companies as an example, noting that these companies' capital expenditure this year alone is expected to reach $700 billion, and the resulting construction of data centers will directly create a large number of construction jobs.
He emphasizes:
The U.S. economy is able to, and will, adapt to major technological advances.
David Solomon cites Goldman Sachs' internal economists' latest predictions, stating that in the next ten years, AI is expected to automate about 25% of current work hours. The most affected will be banking, law, accounting, software development, and customer service, which are white-collar intensive fields.
These industries are all core components of global capital markets. The systematic shifts in their human cost structures will profoundly affect corporate profitability, human resource allocation strategies, and even long-term valuation models.
David Solomon points out that if AI indeed causes job losses on an unprecedented scale, businesses and governments should form "joint efforts" to help workers and relevant agencies adapt to the new employment ecosystem.
a16z Founder Andreessen's View: AI Is Timely
David Solomon's stance closely aligns with Marc Andreessen's earlier assessment.
This Netscape co-founder and a16z co-founder states that as populations in several countries are entering contraction cycles, structural pressures from labor shortages are continuing to accumulate, and AI and robotics are "arriving just when we really need them," serving to prevent the economy from declining in sync with shrinking populations.
This narrative framework positions AI as a productivity compensation mechanism amid the fading demographic dividend, fundamentally opposing pessimists who depict AI as an engine of mass unemployment.
Analysts believe that Solomon and Andreessen's public statements reflect the mainstream forces in Silicon Valley and Wall Street actively shaping the social value narrative of AI, attempting to seize the public opinion high ground before policy debates are fully formed.
For investors betting on AI infrastructure and related industry chains, business leaders' collective statements can help to stabilize market expectations to some degree, but the forecast of 25% white-collar work hour automation will remain a structural risk variable for quite some time in the future.
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