Episode
The AI Economist: The Data on AI and Jobs Tells a Different Story
- Published
- Jul 12, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 4900
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Summary
Are jobs actually going away? In this episode of I’ve Got Questions, I sit down with economist Avi Goldfarb, professor at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, Rotman Chair in AI and Healthcare, and chief data scientist at the Creative Destruction Lab, to unpack what AI is actually doing to the job market. We explore the popular narrative of an AI job apocalypse and what the data is really showing so far. Avi explains why AI may not simply replace workers across the board, but instead reshape which tasks become more valuable, which jobs become more exposed, and who benefits from the productivity gains. We dive into how AI could transform industries like law, healthcare, marketing, and finance, what happens to entry-level workers when AI can perform junior tasks, and why college graduates may be facing a very different path into the workforce. We also explore whether AI could increase inequality or become an unexpected equalizer, depending on what gets automated and what gets augmented. And Avi shares the four skills he believes matter most for anyone trying to stay valuable in an AI-powered economy. What You’ll Learn:[00:00:00] — Opening: Andrew Yang’s viral AI jobs warning, unpacked [00:09:24] — Why the jobs most exposed to AI are in the top 20%, not the bottom 80% [00:13:38] — One person's automation is someone else's augmentation: the doctor-nurse framework [00:23:00] — The long run vs. the short run: where Avi is confident and where he's not [00:33:32] — "Jobs aren't good": decoupling work from income and meaning [00:43:10] — Software engineering as the canary in the coal mine for the knowledge economy [00:52:34] — Why automation takes much longer than the hype says: the telephone operator [01:10:00] — The O-ring effect: why AI exposure in y…