The threat of AI to white-collar jobs

Explore how AI threatens high-wage white-collar jobs, challenging talent and market dynamics in today's workforce landscape.
“My colleague Aki Ito wrote about how AI will ultimately harm the most talented people in white collar jobs, because it will make it harder for them justify sky-high wages.” —What History Says About AI’s Threat to Jobs and White-Collar Work
The agent-shaped org chart
Every real org has the same topology: principal, role-holder, specialists. Staff AI maps onto it, node for node, and the cost collapse shows up in the deliverables that were always just human-handoff overhead.
AI as staff, not software
Two frames for what AI is doing to work. The tool frame makes tools smarter. The staff frame makes roles unnecessary. Those aren't the same product, the same company, or the same industry.
Knowledge work was never work
Knowledge work was always coordination between humans who couldn't share state directly. The artifacts were never the work. They were the overhead — and AI just made the overhead optional.
The work of being available now
A book on AI, judgment, and staying human at work.
The practice of work in progress
Practical essays on how work actually gets done.
How do I get my dev team to adopt AI?
A stub on helping mixed-interest development teams find their own useful ways into AI.
Want to learn about agents? Talk to someone who ran an agency.
I spent 20 years running consulting engagements at Fortune 500 companies. Turns out that's the best preparation for running a fleet of AI agents ... because the problems are identical.
Your AI agents need a water cooler
We run a twelve-session AI fleet that coordinates through an IRC breakroom. A friend asked: why are you making AI agents act like humans? The answer turned out to be more interesting than the question.
The impact of AI on white-collar jobs
Explore how AI transforms white-collar jobs, highlighting the balance between automation and the enduring value of skilled human work.
The entrepreneurial revolution facilitated by AI
Discover how AI is transforming entrepreneurship by empowering founders with personalized support, leading to a new era of innovation and opportunity.
Maximizing generative AI potential
Unlock the full potential of generative AI by customizing models tailored to your business needs, enhancing efficiency and security.