Jobs in the Intelligence Age

AI for DC

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Hi

Welcome (back) to The Prompt. AI isn’t well understood, but we learn a lot in our work that can help. In this newsletter, we share some of these learnings with you. If you find them helpful, make sure you’re signed up for the next issue.

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[Insight] Jobs of the Intelligence Age

We believe AI will unlock more opportunities for more people than any technology in history, making companies more efficient, giving anyone the power to turn ideas into income, and creating jobs that don’t exist today. It will be disruptive, too: Many companies will hire fewer people as existing teams will be able to do far more in the same number of hours, and some jobs will be eliminated entirely.

Yet many new jobs will be created. Past technological breakthroughs – industrial assembly lines, computers, the Internet – have all added new kinds of work. A long-running study (1940-2018) finds that the majority of Americans now work in occupations that didn’t exist in 1940.

This is why we’re building OpenAI Certifications and the OpenAI Jobs Platform – to help more people become fluent in AI and connect them with employers who need their skills. Walmart, John Deere, Boston Consulting Group, Accenture and Indeed are on board as launch partners to offer certification to their own employees, participate in the jobs platform, or both.

Our “AI for Main Street” track is designed to ensure that individuals, startups, smaller businesses and chambers of commerce, nonprofits, and state and local government offices can get OpenAI-Certified and take part in the jobs platform to have level access to work opportunities and OpenAI-Certified candidates. Delaware Gov. Matt Meyer’s office, the Texas Association of Business, and the Bay Area Council are already on board, too.

Scaling AI literacy and opportunities for workers, and giving employers confidence in employees’ AI skills, are all crucial to ensure that AI’s economic opportunity is broadly shared and not concentrated among just a few. We’re committing to OpenAI-Certify 10 million Americans by 2030.

So what do new AI-enabled work opportunities look like? We don’t have a crystal ball to predict the future. But in our discussions with business leaders who have described how they see roles evolving with AI, two areas of new jobs are beginning to emerge:

1. Knowledge-work roles that blend human judgment with AI tools. For example, we’ll see new jobs like AI Workflow Orchestrators who design how humans and assistants collaborate; Verification and Safety Engineers who test AI outputs and keep systems aligned with policy; Data Stewards who manage organizational memory and data quality; and AI Coaches who help teams use these tools effectively. These are practical, accessible roles that build on skills people already have.

2. Infrastructure and operations jobs that make AI possible in the physical economy. The buildout of data centers, upgraded power grids, and chip manufacturing will create new roles — from Data Center Technicians and Cooling Engineers, to Semiconductor Manufacturing Techs and Fiber-Optic Installers. These are durable jobs that will last well beyond any single AI model.

Beyond these, we see familiar roles evolving as organizations use, manage, and apply AI responsibly. In retail, that spans Catalog Managers, Customer Support Agents, and Loss-Prevention Analysts. On Main Street, think Bookkeepers, Front-Desk/Reception, and Marketing Coordinators. And in state and local government, it includes 311 Agents, Permit Technicians, and Contract Analysts.

See here for our more comprehensive list of possible jobs in the Intelligence Age.

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[Data] Most small businesses say AI skills are important

As mentioned, chambers of commerce and smaller businesses will have level access to OpenAI Certifications and the Jobs Platform. Certification especially seems to be of interest. In our recent survey of small-business owners nationwide, three quarters of them (76%), including three quarters of small-business owners who employ fewer than 10 people, believe AI skills are important for their business’s future success. And half (50%) say it’s “extremely” or “very” important, according to a TrueDot survey we commissioned (500 national small-business owners, Aug. 21-27, +/- 5.9%).

What also stands out in the survey: 61% of all small-business owners prefer training their current staff in AI, versus 39% who favor hiring employees who already possess AI skills. The survey also finds that the need for more training is the No. 1 challenge these small-business owners face in adopting AI (44%). Note: this question allowed for multiple responses.

And 2-in-5 small-business owners said they expect increased efficiency from hiring employees who are comfortable with using AI, 34% said they expect more innovation, 29% said they expected more or faster growth, and 27% said they expect lower costs. Only 21% said they expect neither of these things. Again: this question allowed for multiple responses.

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[News] Meet Los Alamos’ new supercomputer

A survey for us from earlier this year (Panterra, April 18-21, 1,054 US adults, MOE +/-3%) found 73% of Americans believing that medical advancements take too long to reach the public; 67% thinking we need faster breakthroughs in renewable energy; and 58% saying scientific breakthroughs take too long. This is where AI can help.

Check this out: After moving to a classified network, the Venado supercomputer at Los Alamos National Laboratory is now running OpenAI’s latest o-series reasoning models to accelerate national security research.

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[About] OpenAI Forum

Explore past and upcoming programming by and for our community of more than 30,000 AI experts and enthusiasts from across tech, science, medicine, education and government, among other fields.

3:00 PM – 4:00 PM EST on Sep 4

[Disclosure]

Graphics created by Base Three using ChatGPT.

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