AI Reshapes Jobs With 80% Task Automation as CEOs Retreat From Mass-Layoff Warnings
Updated
Updated · The New Yorker · Jun 5
AI Reshapes Jobs With 80% Task Automation as CEOs Retreat From Mass-Layoff Warnings
3 articles · Updated · The New Yorker · Jun 5
Summary
Custom AI tools are increasingly changing work by automating narrow tasks rather than wiping out whole roles, with one shipping company saying a staff-built tool handled about 80% of invoice-matching problems.
That shift is feeding a change in rhetoric: Nvidia's Jensen Huang says AI is creating jobs, and OpenAI's Sam Altman said in May he was "delighted to be wrong" about large-scale job losses.
Examples outside tech include a journalism nonprofit using Claude Code to build tools that summarize reporting leads and draft funder communications, while consultants use AI agents to compare products, research 50 ETFs and edit writing.
The tools still need close supervision and work best on mechanistic tasks, but they let workers spend more time on higher-value decisions by acting more like partners than replacements.
The broader implication is a return to bespoke software for ordinary workers—reviving an early personal-computing ideal—as concern about AI remains high, with 80% of Americans worried in a Quinnipiac poll.