Ex-Google exec: The idea that AI will create new jobs is '100% crap'—even CEOs are at risk of displacement

CNBC

05-08-2025

Mo Gawdat, former chief business officer at Google X, the company's innovation lab, says AI is likely coming for your role — whether you're in the C-suite or an entry-level worker.
The idea that artificial intelligence will create jobs is "100% crap," Gawdat said Monday on the "Diary of a CEO" podcast, using his own AI startup, Emma.love, as an example. He and two other software experts built the app with the help of AI, a project that would have required "350 developers in the past," he said.
Gawdat has worked in tech for over 30 years. He was in the C-suite at Google X for almost five years tackling major problems facing humanity, like energy, climate change and internet access.
Even the jobs you may think require humans will be eliminated, including video editors, podcasters and executives, said Gawdat. Bill Gates has predicted that doctors and teachers will also be replaced in the coming years.
Those who have the most promising outlook are professionals who are the best at their jobs, said Gawdat, author of "Scary Smart: The Future of Artificial Intelligence and How You Can Save Our World." But even they won't be safe forever.
Artificial general intelligence is "going to be better than humans at everything, including being a CEO," said Gawdat. "There will be a time where most incompetent CEOs will be replaced."
Other leaders say AI isn't all doom and gloom. Billionaires Mark Cuban and Jensen Huang, for example, say learning AI skills — in addition to strengthening soft skills — will make you highly desirable in the workplace and give you a competitive edge. After all, somebody has to program, develop and train the chatbots, and teach others to do the same.
Both Cuban, who has a free AI boot camp for kids, and Huang, whose company develops the chips and software powering many of today's generative systems, use artificial intelligence on a daily basis for tasks like writing first drafts, sending emails and getting medical advice.
Though 41% of employers globally plan to downsize their workforce due to AI (48% in the U.S.), 77% of employers are planning to upskill their current workforce to better work alongside AI, according to The World Economic Forum's 2025 Future of Jobs report. Moreover, 47% are looking at transitioning employees from declining roles into other roles in the organization.
Put simply, companies aren't going on a firing spree to replace human workers with robots right now.
Though Gawdat says the job market will suffer greatly due to AI, this economic shift may help spark necessary change to our outlook on work, giving people more time to spend with family, cultivate new hobbies, pursue philanthropy and find an identity outside of a job title.
"We were never made to wake up every morning and just occupy 20 hours of our day with work. We're not made for that," he said. "We defined our purpose as work. That's a capitalist lie."
An AI-powered society would require some kind of universal basic income (UBI), said Gawdat, a social welfare policy that ensures all citizens of a community regularly receive a payment from the government without work requirements.
The other caveat to this "utopia" is the potentially dangerous consequences of the "hunger for power, greed and ego" as AI bots report to "stupid leaders," said Gawdat, calling for ethical use and regulations around artificial intelligence.
No matter the impact of artificial intelligence, or the approaches different leaders take, one thing remains undisputable: AI is no longer a curiosity, or a plot line in a sci-fi film. It's revolutionizing the way people live and work. And it's here to stay.
"This is real," Gawdat said. "This is not science fiction."