AI is looming over many white-collar workers like a dark cloud, threatening to automate their jobs. But JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said there are sunnier days ahead thanks to the tech’s productivity gains—people will have more jobs than ever, and will be clocking in fewer hours a day.
“I believe that 30 years from now, your kids are probably working three and a half days a week,” Dimon told CBS in a recent interview.
The CEO of the $794.5 billion bank said the world is becoming “very productive” thanks to AI; he predicted a future of healthier, happier humans who will be able to “hike more” and enjoy their pursuits outside of their shortened 3.5-day workweeks. In his annual letter to JPMorgan shareholders released this morning, Dimon reiterated that these improvements are well underway—even if his more optimistic claims are still decades from fruition.
“I do not think it is an exaggeration to say that AI will cure some cancers, create new composites and reduce accidental deaths, among other positive outcomes. It will eventually reduce the workweek in the developed world,” Dimon wrote in his recent letter to shareholders. “People will live longer and safer.”
However, Dimon isn’t willing to bury his head in the sand about the short-term effects of AI. The bank’s leader has been open about AI’s impact on jobs, flagging the risk of disruption if AI moves “too fast.” In his shareholder letter, he doubled down on the claim that AI will “definitely eliminate some jobs,” as its rapid deployment could outpace job creation and workforce adaptation. However, he added that it will simultaneously enhance existing and create new career opportunities, such as cybersecurity and AI itself.
Looking to the future, the CEO believes humans will have more professional options; however, businesses and governments need to work together to ensure job security before we get there. And the ones who stay afloat won’t be the most tech-savvy talent.
Fortune reached out to JPMorgan for comment.
Dimon’s advice to young people in the AI era: ‘Learn to have EQ’
CEOs have stressed the importance of workers adding prompting skills to their professional arsenal. But when asked how young people can get ahead in the AI era, Dimon underscored the importance of tapping into what it means to be human. Learning, he said, is still “the number one thing to do.”
“Talk to everybody. Have deep curiosity about the world,” Dimon told CBS. “Learn to think all the time, and then learn to have EQ. EQ is, can I communicate? Do I have heart? Do people trust me?”
“Talk to everybody. Have deep curiosity about the world,” he said. “Learn to have a work ethic, learn to have a purpose—all those things, you will have a great life.”
Dimon advised budding talent to develop a work ethic and understand how to find purpose. They should travel and be open to new perspectives; work with others as a team rather than make it all about themselves. Once young workers are able to tap into those soft skills, they’ll have “a great life,” he said. And he doesn’t believe they’ll be fighting for roles either; Dimon predicted that the job market will expand, despite his reservations in the short term.
“Their lives are going to be more complex than ours were…They will have more jobs than we had, they’ll move around a little bit more,” Dimon continued. “But I think they’ll have great lives.”
Battling potential AI job disruption ahead: retraining and capping layoffs
While young professionals can work on their human skills, it’s only one half of the picture; the JPMorgan CEO said it’s also the responsibility of businesses and government to intervene. And as thousands of people lose their jobs in the name of AI automation, Dimon proposed a solution to avoid job market chaos.
“I have a plan to retrain people, relocate people, income-assist people,” Dimon said at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, earlier this year.
Dimon explained that there would be “civil unrest” if AI were to automate an entire profession and millions of people were suddenly booted from their high-paying jobs. Therefore, it’s on the bigger powers at hand to “phase it in over time” and “retrain” workers to stay employed in the new AI era. He’s even supportive of the government at the local level, offering incentives for retraining and placing restrictions on layoffs, including at his own company.
“We would agree, if we have to do that to save society,” he said. “Society will have more production. We’re going to cure a lot of cancers. You’re not going to slow it down. How do you have plans in place to make it work better if it does something terrible? That’s the only way to do it.”
