The most powerful minds in AI just admitted they were wrong

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Two of the most powerful people in AI just admitted they got it wrong.

Sam Altman. Dario Amodei. Both walked back their job apocalypse predictions this week.

The data has been saying it for two years.

The IMF at Davos: 60% of jobs in advanced economies will materially change. Not disappear... change.

The WEF puts it even more precisely: 92 million jobs displaced, 170 million created. That's a net positive of 78 million jobs.

This is the Luddite fallacy playing out in real time.

In 1811, textile workers smashed power looms across England because they believed technology would end employment.

The looms didn't eliminate jobs, they moved them, multiplied them, and eventually created entire industries that didn't exist before.

Every major technology wave since has followed the same pattern. We just forget that each time.

Jevons Paradox explains the mechanism.

In 1865, an economist named William Jevons observed that when steam engines became more efficient, coal consumption went up, not down.

Counterintuitive, but consistent.

Make something more efficient and you don't reduce demand for it. You expand it.

AI isn’t shrinking human capability. It’s creating more surface area for it.

So stop catastrophizing. And start adapting.

Because here's what IS true: this will be the most disruptive shift in how we work in our lifetime.

Because the nature of work is changing completely.

You are going to work with AI. You are going to have AI work for you. And sometimes (whether you realize it or not) you are going to work in service of an AI-driven system.

Assistive AI. Agentic AI. Both. Simultaneously. In every workflow.

Entrepreneurs who are still debating whether to engage are already behind.

The companies pulling ahead aren't the ones with the biggest budgets.

According to 37 studies over the last 18 months, the single greatest predictor of success isn't the technology you use. It's whether you've redesigned your workflows around it.

Most organizations are stuck in pilot mode. Running experiments. Building slide decks. Calling it transformation.

It isn't.

The question isn't if you rewire your workflows. It's whether you do it intentionally or reactively. And the gap between those two paths is compounding permanently.

​Cheers,

Matt

P.S. One of our clients recently DOUBLED revenue in 6 months by: identifying the biggest constraint in the business and pointing AI at the redesigned workflow. That’s the difference between experimenting with AI and compounding real bottom-line impact.

If you want to get intentional about where AI belongs in your business, get on a call with us. No pitch. No pressure.

Just a conversation about where the real constraint is and what workflow might be worth rebuilding first.