Latest news with #RevelioLabs
Business Insider
a day ago
- Business
- Business Insider
Sam Altman said AI agents are acting like junior colleagues — and he's betting that AI could soon 'discover new knowledge'
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is betting that AI could soon help "discover new knowledge" and said it is already beginning to act like your junior-level coworkers. "You hear people that talk about their job now is to assign work to a bunch of agents, look at the quality, figure out how it fits together, give feedback, and it sounds a lot like how they work with a team of still relatively junior employees," Altman said of AI agents on Monday during the Snowflake Summit 2025, in a conversation with Snowflake Computing CEO Sridhar Ramaswamy. "I would bet next year that in some limited cases, at least in some small ways, we start to see agents that can help us discover new knowledge, or can figure out solutions to business problems that are kind of very non-trivial," Altman added. The keynote conversation at Snowflake Summit — which explored how organizations can drive immediate impact with the power of AI — comes as new data show that AI is already replacing human workers. Zanele Munyikwa, an economist at Revelio Labs, spoke to Business Insider's Aki Ito about her analysis of online job postings and the impact of AI since ChatGPT's release at the end of 2022. As Ito wrote, "She found that over the past three years, the share of AI-doable tasks in online job postings has declined by 19%." In roles Munyikwa pinpointed as more vulnerable to AI, such as database administrators and IT specialists, the hiring downturn has been as steep as 31%. Over the past quarter, Shopify said that its managers need to explain why a job couldn't be handled by AI before asking for new hires, and Duolingo, the language learning app, said it would replace contract workers with AI. In February, OpenAI launched GPT-4.5, which Altman called "the first model that feels like talking to a thoughtful person." He also described the model as "giant" and "expensive." The rollout is limited to Pro subscribers until the shortage of GPUs is solved. OpenAI also recently launched Codex, a new AI agent aimed at streamlining coding tasks for developers by writing code, fixing bugs, and running tests. Altman said it was already in use by OpenAI's own engineers. Unlike traditional chatbots, the multitasking AI agent can also interact with external software to complete tasks like making a dinner reservation.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
New data confirms it: AI is taking human jobs
In March, Shopify's CEO told his managers he was implementing a new rule: Before asking for more head count, they had to prove that AI couldn't do the job as well as a human would. A few weeks later, Duolingo's CEO announced a similar decree and went even further — saying the company would gradually phase out contractors and replace them with AI. The announcements matched what I've been hearing in my own conversations with employers: Because of AI, they are hiring less than before. When I first started reporting on ChatGPT's impact on the labor market, I thought it would take many years for AI to meaningfully reshape the job landscape. But in recent months, I've found myself wondering if the AI revolution has already arrived. To answer that question, I asked Revelio Labs, an analytics provider that aggregates huge reams of workforce data from across the internet, to see if it could tell which jobs are already being replaced by AI. Not in some hypothetical future, but right now — today. Zanele Munyikwa, an economist at Revelio Labs, started by looking at the job descriptions in online postings and identifying the listed responsibilities that AI can already perform or augment. She found that over the past three years, the share of AI-doable tasks in online job postings has declined by 19%. After further analysis, she reached a startling conclusion: The vast majority of the drop took place because companies are hiring fewer people in roles that AI can do. Next, Munyikwa segmented all the occupations into three buckets: those with a lot of AI-doable tasks (high-exposure roles), those with relatively few AI-doable tasks (low-exposure roles), and those in between. Since OpenAI released ChatGPT in 2022, she found, there has been a decline in job openings across the board. But the hiring downturn has been steeper for high-exposure roles (31%) than for low-exposure roles (25%). In short, jobs that AI can perform are disappearing from job boards faster than those that AI can't handle. Which jobs have the most exposure to AI? Those that handle a lot of tech functions: database administrators, IT specialists, information security, and data engineers. The jobs with the lowest exposure to AI, by contrast, are in-person roles like restaurant managers, foremen, and mechanics. This isn't the first analysis to show the early impact of AI on the labor market. In 2023, a group of researchers at Washington University and New York University homed in on a set of professionals who are particularly vulnerable: freelancers in writing-related occupations. After the introduction of ChatGPT, the number of jobs in those fields dropped by 2% on the freelancing platform Upwork — and monthly earnings declined by 5.2%. "In the short term," the researchers wrote, "generative AI reduces overall demand for knowledge workers of all types." At Revelio Labs, Munyikwa is careful about expanding on the implications of her own findings. It's unclear, she says, if AI in its current iteration is actually capable of doing all the white-collar work that employers think it can. It could be that CEOs at companies like Shopify and Duolingo will wake up one day and discover that hiring less for AI-exposed roles was a bad move. Will it affect the quality of the work or the creativity of employees — and, ultimately, the bottom line? The answer will determine how enduring the AI hiring standstill will prove to be in the years ahead. Some companies already appear to be doing an about-face on their AI optimism. Last year, the fintech company Klarna boasted that its investment in artificial intelligence had enabled it to put a freeze on human hiring. An AI assistant, it reported, was doing "the equivalent work of 700 full-time agents." But in recent months, Klarna has changed its tune. It has started hiring human agents again, acknowledging that its AI-driven cost-cutting push led to "lower quality." "It's so critical that you are clear to your customer that there will always be a human," CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski told Bloomberg. "Really investing in the quality of the human support is the way of the future for us." Will there be more chastened Siemiatkowskis in the months and years ahead? I'm not betting on it. All across tech, chief executives share an almost religious fervor to have fewer employees around — employees who complain and get demotivated and need breaks in all the ways AI doesn't. At the same time, the AI tools at our disposal are getting better and better every month, enabling companies to shed employees. As long as that's the case, I'm not sure white-collar occupations face an optimistic future. Even Siemiatkowski still says he expects to reduce his workforce by another 500 through attrition in the coming year. And when Klarna's technology improves enough, he predicts, he'll be able to downsize at an even faster pace. Asked when that point will come, he replied: "I think it's very likely within 12 months." Aki Ito is a chief correspondent at Business Insider. Read the original article on Business Insider
Business Insider
2 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
The AI future is already here
In March, Shopify 's CEO told his managers he was implementing a new rule: Before asking for more head count, they had to prove that AI couldn't do the job as well as a human would. A few weeks later, Duolingo 's CEO announced a similar decree and went even further — saying the company would gradually phase out contractors and replace them with AI. The announcements matched what I've been hearing in my own conversations with employers: Because of AI, they are hiring less than before. When I first started reporting on ChatGPT's impact on the labor market, I thought it would take many years for AI to meaningfully reshape the job landscape. But in recent months, I've found myself wondering if the AI revolution has already arrived. To answer that question, I asked Revelio Labs, an analytics provider that aggregates huge reams of workforce data from across the internet, to see if it could tell which jobs are already being replaced by AI. Not in some hypothetical future, but right now — today. Zanele Munyikwa, an economist at Revelio Labs, started by looking at the job descriptions in online postings and identifying the listed responsibilities that AI can already perform or augment. She found that over the past three years, the share of AI-doable tasks in online job postings has declined by 19%. After further analysis, she reached a startling conclusion: The vast majority of the drop took place because companies are hiring fewer people in roles that AI can do. Next, Munyikwa segmented all the occupations into three buckets: those with a lot of AI-doable tasks (high-exposure roles), those with relatively few AI-doable tasks (low-exposure roles), and those in between. Since OpenAI released ChatGPT in 2022, she found, there has been a decline in job openings across the board. But the hiring downturn has been steeper for high-exposure roles (31%) than for low-exposure roles (25%). In short, jobs that AI can perform are disappearing from job boards faster than those that AI can't handle. Which jobs have the most exposure to AI? Those that handle a lot of tech functions: database administrators, IT specialists, information security, and data engineers. The jobs with the lowest exposure to AI, by contrast, are in-person roles like restaurant managers, foremen, and mechanics. This isn't the first analysis to show the early impact of AI on the labor market. In 2023, a group of researchers at Washington University and New York University homed in on a set of professionals who are particularly vulnerable: freelancers in writing-related occupations. After the introduction of ChatGPT, the number of jobs in those fields dropped by 2% on the freelancing platform Upwork — and monthly earnings declined by 5.2%. "In the short term," the researchers wrote, "generative AI reduces overall demand for knowledge workers of all types." At Revelio Labs, Munyikwa is careful about expanding on the implications of her own findings. It's unclear, she says, if AI in its current iteration is actually capable of doing all the white-collar work that employers think it can. It could be that CEOs at companies like Shopify and Duolingo will wake up one day and discover that hiring less for AI-exposed roles was a bad move. Will it affect the quality of the work or the creativity of employees — and, ultimately, the bottom line? The answer will determine how enduring the AI hiring standstill will prove to be in the years ahead. Some companies already appear to be doing an about-face on their AI optimism. Last year, the fintech company Klarna boasted that its investment in artificial intelligence had enabled it to put a freeze on human hiring. An AI assistant, it reported, was doing "the equivalent work of 700 full-time agents." But in recent months, Klarna has changed its tune. It has started hiring human agents again, acknowledging that its AI-driven cost-cutting push led to "lower quality." "It's so critical that you are clear to your customer that there will always be a human," CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski told Bloomberg. "Really investing in the quality of the human support is the way of the future for us." Will there be more chastened Siemiatkowskis in the months and years ahead? I'm not betting on it. All across tech, chief executives share an almost religious fervor to have fewer employees around — employees who complain and get demotivated and need breaks in all the ways AI doesn't. At the same time, the AI tools at our disposal are getting better and better every month, enabling companies to shed employees. As long as that's the case, I'm not sure white-collar occupations face an optimistic future. Even Siemiatkowski still says he expects to reduce his workforce by another 500 through attrition in the coming year. And when Klarna's technology improves enough, he predicts, he'll be able to downsize at an even faster pace. Asked when that point will come, he replied: "I think it's very likely within 12 months."
Forbes
5 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
The Death Of Tech Hubs: Why Innovation No Longer Has A ZIP Code
Nacho De Marco is the CEO of BairesDev, an award-winning nearshore software outsourcing company, and the cofounder of VC firm BDev Ventures. For a long time, breaking into the tech industry meant trying out your luck in a few specific places, such as Silicon Valley, New York or Boston, but that's no longer the case. Remote work has rewritten the rules, and the next wave of tech growth isn't limited to the usual coastal hubs. We see it happening everywhere. So, are tech hubs as we once knew them dying? According to a BairesDev analysis of graduate, employment, population and cost of living data from 2022 to 2024, there are approximately 10.8 job listings for every new computer science (CS) graduate in the U.S. In states like New Hampshire and Utah, where CS grads per capita are among the highest (14.7 and 13.8 per 10,000 people), the local talent is ready to meet demand. A few years ago, those grads would've had to move to large coastal cities to find work. Now, they can build careers from home, ditch the sky-high rent and contribute to their local economies. The playing field is leveling out, and remote work is the main enabler. This global shift is transforming how talent and opportunity intersect. Recruiters are no longer confined to hiring in the same usual saturated areas, benefiting emerging tech hubs. As a nearshore company, we've seen this phenomenon extend across the entire continent. Revelio Labs reported that there was a 70% increase in South Americans working remotely for North American companies between 2020 and 2023. This is strong evidence that qualified talent isn't restricted to geography. BairesDev is a good example, hiring historically 40% of our tech talent from non-metropolitan areas across LATAM. From Guadalajara in Mexico to Tandil in Argentina, we've seen tech talent hotspots emerge and amplify their reach. Let's focus for a moment on how this shift is impacting talent in the U.S. As I mentioned, the idea that professional success in tech was only attainable in a few cities is dissolving. Look at cities with high remote job ratios, like Utah or Colorado. They're now on the map for tech-driven economic growth. The money earned by remote workers circulates locally, creating demand for housing, services and new businesses. The data backs this up. Although California and New York still produce the most CS graduates, our analysis shows that smaller states are making some of the most significant contributions per capita. For example, the Georgia Institute of Technology produces more CS grads than New York University and the University of Pennsylvania combined, and Utah's Western Governors University and Utah Valley University rank among the top six in the nation. But the real proof lies in how this shift is demonstrated across the U.S. Take Boise, Idaho. Once overlooked, it's now attracting major billionaire investments from companies like Micron and Meta. With a growing startup scene and local talent from Boise State, it's become a real alternative to the coasts. Or look at Raleigh, North Carolina. Built on the foundation of the Research Triangle, it's now a hotspot for AI, the cloud and cybersecurity. With a strong mix of talent and affordability, some predict it could soon be the No. 2 tech hub on the East Coast. As players in the nearshoring field, Boise and Raleigh's stories feel familiar. We witness similar developments unfold in Latin America, where smaller cities, once overlooked by the global tech market, are positioning themselves as innovation centers thanks to remote work and nearshoring demand. For employers, this talent evolution opens up a lot of opportunities. Companies are acknowledging that location isn't a limitation but an opportunity to access a broader and better-skilled workforce. Just consider the fast growth of tech talent in Latin America alone. According to our internal data, BairesDev has seen a 285% increase in remote applicants from LATAM in the last five years, offering U.S. companies the chance to tap into a highly qualified workforce. This mirrors what's happening domestically. Just as Boise and Raleigh are gaining ground in the U.S., cities like Medellín, Guadalajara and Córdoba in LATAM are becoming anchors for remote development teams. This shift isn't just changing where tech jobs are. It's reshaping how companies strategize about talent and hiring. They're embracing fully distributed teams, hiring the best tech talent regardless of geography. Some may lean into hybrid models, setting up smaller regional offices or co-working hubs. Others are investing in technology to make asynchronous work seamless, ensuring productivity isn't tied to a specific location or time zone. Nearshoring helped pioneer this new way of working. Collaborating with teams throughout Latin America gave U.S. companies early experience in managing distributed talent, enabling alignment, adaptability and performance well before remote work became widespread. We have to shake off the idea that tech hubs revolve around geography. They now revolve around connectivity and capability. Whether you're a developer in Raleigh or a UX designer in Rosario, you can deliver meaningful results, grow your career and make an impact without leaving the place where you live best. As someone working closely with U.S. companies and LATAM professionals, I see firsthand how this new landscape benefits everyone. Businesses are building agile and skilled distributed teams, and communities are growing through reinvested talent. The boundaries that once defined opportunity in tech are dissolving. Although we won't see the current tech epicenters losing relevance anytime soon, we will see a geographically diverse skilled workforce nurturing not only tech innovation worldwide but their own communities at the same time. Employers are increasingly recognizing that location isn't a limitation but an opportunity to access a broader, more diverse talent pool. Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?
Business Insider
25-05-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
One chart sums up the job search bitterness we've heard from 750 people who are looking for work
Four years, 1,000 applications, and a dozen interviews. As their job searches drag on, Americans tell Business Insider they're wondering if companies want to fill open roles at all. Since last fall, BI has heard from more than 750 struggling job seekers, ranging between the ages of 18 and 76. Many shared frustrations about open roles they suspect were never filled — either because the posting stayed up for months, or the company went silent after they applied or interviewed. "There are some firms on LinkedIn that are always advertising the same position and have been for almost a year now," Felipe Martins previously told Business Insider, before his 15-month job search ended. "I've applied to these positions at least half a dozen times now." Martins' frustrations echo a trend that's become more common in recent years: job postings are taking longer to be filled, if they're filled at all. It's a key part of the US hiring slowdown — and why it's taking longer for many Americans to find work, even as the unemployment rate remains low, said Stephanie Hao, a senior economist at the workforce analytics provider Revelio Labs. In October 2019, about 91% of job postings from companies in the Russell 3000 — a stock market index that monitors the performance of the 3,000 largest US public firms — were filled within six months, per data shared with BI by Revelio Labs. Of the jobs posted in October 2024, fewer than half were filled within the same six-month timeframe. Revelio Labs tracks job postings on the websites of Russell 3000 companies and cross-references them with LinkedIn profiles to estimate how many roles were filled. Additionally, job postings from these companies have fallen from a peak of over 950,000 in 2022 to roughly 650,000 as of March, per Revelio data. "Companies might leave job postings up, even when they have little intention of hiring, especially in uncertain labor markets," Hao said. Have you landed a new job in the last few years and are open to sharing your story? Please fill out this quick Google Form. Why companies aren't filling open jobs Hao said that some companies may have posted jobs they intended to fill, but heightened economic uncertainty in recent months caused them to pause or scrap those plans. Caution around inflation, tariffs, AI, and federal spending cuts has many CEOs using " the P-word." Many job seekers BI heard from pointed to ghost jobs — positions posted online that companies aren't actively hiring for — as a key reason for their long job searches. However, Hao said roles that go unfilled due to economic conditions aren't quite ghost jobs. "There's a difference between companies that put up postings with the intention to hire — and they don't end up hiring anyone due to not being able to find a good candidate or economic uncertainty — and not really having an intention of hiring somebody," Hao said. She added that ghost jobs may be posted to give the impression that the company is growing, to keep a pipeline of potential candidates open, or to give overworked staff hope that their employers will soon hire help. In some cases, companies might be hesitant to commit to hiring plans, but want to be prepared if they decide to move forward, so they'll post a job just in case, Hao said. "While companies may not be actively hiring, they may still want to build a talent pipeline for the future, or may reconsider if an especially qualified candidate applies," she added. Regardless of why a company isn't filling a role, it all adds up to frustration for the applicants in limbo. Looking ahead, Hao said it's difficult to forecast the hiring landscape, but unless economic conditions change, many job openings could remain unfilled. "Companies may not know what the hiring situation will look like, so I think it benefits them to always have a pipeline of people they can reach out to if they do end up hiring for a specific role," Hao said.
