Metatrend #2: AI and Quantum Computing 2-minute read
What it is
“[As a result of AI] overall, there will be more people employed with higher-paying jobs.” – Eric Schmidt
In this Metatrends edition, we assess why AI will create more jobs rather than destroy them. Former Google/Alphabet CEO Eric Schmidt presents an argument that completely flips the unemployment narrative.
This is not naive optimism. Schmidt explains precisely how automation has worked throughout history and why AI will accelerate job creation, wage growth, and economic expansion in ways we have never seen before.
“In the short term, 5 to 10 years, I will argue that this is positive for employment,” Schmidt predicts, based on economic principles that have held true for over a century.
How it works: automation = more jobs
Thesis: automation starts with the lowest-status and most dangerous jobs, then moves up the chain.
Example: the person who was previously a welder now operates a robotic arm that performs 10 times more welds. The worker earns more, the company profits more because it produces more, amplified by robotics.
This pattern has repeated itself across every major technological advancement in history: the loom, agriculture, industry, and so on.
Every person will have a brilliant assistant
The AI revolution gives anyone with a smartphone a "super-genius" intelligence in their pocket.
“If you take a person of average intelligence or knowledge and add an accelerator, they can land a better-paying job.”
AI enhances the worker's capabilities rather than replacing them. This boosts productivity, value, and wages.
Why more jobs are inevitable
Schmidt dismantles the myth of "finite jobs":
“The economy expands because opportunities expand, profits increase, wealth grows, and so on.”
Example: jobs at Amazon distribution centers and in Amazon trucking did not exist before Amazon.
New technologies do not merely improve existing jobs — they create entirely new categories that we cannot even imagine today.
The demographic emergency
Another factor:
“It is a national emergency to use more AI to create better jobs and increase productivity, as birth rates are falling.”
In Asia, the decline is even more pronounced: South Korea has 0.7 children per couple, and China has 1.
Countries with declining populations will have to automate everything possible to sustain their economies.
AI to save economies
AI is not here to steal jobs, but to save economies from demographic collapse.
Winners will act now
Companies that integrate AI to boost productivity will dominate the market.
“You already have people in your company who know what to do. You just don't know who they are (yet).”
Identify who can work with AI and invest in them.
Economic expansion
Companies with AI: more output → more profit → higher wages → more investment → more jobs.
Career strategy
Do not fear being replaced by AI — embrace collaboration with AI. Professionals who learn to work alongside intelligent systems will command premium salaries.
Ask yourself: “How can AI make me 10x more efficient at what I do best?”
