Tech titans and stock market investors are increasingly unified in their forecast that artificial intelligence will permanently eliminate millions of white-collar jobs and render traditional employment obsolete.
Software and services stocks have taken a beating, with software multiples pulling back by roughly 33% since late 2025 as investors fret over AI’s potential to automate vast swaths of knowledge work. Earlier this year, Elon Musk predicted that AI and humanoid robots will make work completely “optional” within the next 10 to 20 years, ushering in a post-scarcity economy where money itself becomes irrelevant. He joins a growing chorus of tech executives issuing stark warnings about human obsolescence; OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently cautioned that superintelligence could soon outperform even top corporate executives, while Microsoft AI chief Mustafa Suleyman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei have projected that sweeping white-collar automation could arrive in one to five years. Economists remain skeptical of the timeline, noting that the apocalyptic narrative may be as much a tool to justify astronomical tech valuations as it is an impending economic reality.
But a new, cross-asset research report from Morgan Stanley offers a remarkably grounding message for anxious employees and jittery markets: most of you won’t be permanently unemployed; you are just going to find new jobs, many or most of which don’t exist yet.
Addressing the widespread concern that AI will “replace millions of jobs and increase unemployment by an equivalent amount,” a large team of Morgan Stanley analysts pointed directly to history. Over the past 150 years, sweeping technological shifts—from electrification and the tractor to the computer and the internet—have fundamentally altered the labor force, but they “did not replace labor”.
When the spreadsheet was popularized in the 1980s, for example, it automated tedious financial modeling and reduced the need for certain bookkeeping clerks. However, it simultaneously freed up analysts’ time to do more complex work and birthed entirely new financial professions. Similarly, the firm argues, AI will merely change “job types, occupations, and needed skills”.
“While some roles may be automated, others will see enhancement through AI augmentation and other, entirely new roles will be created,” the report said. Rather than a mass extinction event for the white-collar worker, in short, the bank sees the corporate landscape is simply preparing for an evolution.
So, what will these new jobs look like? Morgan Stanley outlines several emerging professions that it predicts will soon become corporate staples. As AI becomes central to business strategy, companies are expected to hire executive-level “Chief AI Officers” to guide technology adoption across departments. There will also be a massive surge in AI governance roles focused on data compliance, policy oversight, and information security, particularly in sensitive sectors like healthcare.
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