Humans will soon see a sharp decline in their salaries, thanks to AI, Forward Party founder and former presidential candidate Andrew Yang has predicted.
The CEO of Noble Mobile in a post on his Substack on Monday said that AI will impact jobs as a whole, even those in the non-technological sector.
“The amount of money getting paid to human labour is about to go down,” Yang said. in the post.
He gave an example, saying that when people lose jobs due to AI, jobs like dry cleaners or hairstylist will suffer as the need to have these jobs and businesses will go down.
“Let’s say you’re a dry cleaner, a dog walker, or a hairstylist. If people in your community stop going to the office, your business is going to suffer because there are fewer business shirts to launder, people will walk their dogs themselves, and cut back on trips to the salon,” he said.
Yang, who gained mainstream attention as a candidate in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, opined that AI “will kick millions of white-collar workers to the curb in the next 12 – 18 months”.
“Someone in my family had an AI program a website this week. It completed in minutes what used to take a designer or a firm days of work,” he wrote. The businessman said that this kind of efficiency will ultimately lead to the loss of human jobs.
When one company begins to reduce its workforce, Yang said, others will soon follow suit.
“It will become a competition because the stock market will reward you if you cut headcount and punish you if you don’t,” he added.
Who is at risk of losing jobs?
Andrew Yang has in the past warned about the impact of jobs amid the rise of automation. In a 2018 interview with The New York Times, he had warned that self-driving cars could wean off the need for truck drivers calling it a shift that could “destabilise” the society and trigger “riots in the street.”
On Monday’s Substack post, he laid out a list of jobs that could be at risk. The list includes, but is not limited to, mid-career office workers, middle managers, call center workers, marketers, and coders
“Do you sit at a desk and look at a computer much of the day? Take this very seriously,” he wrote. “Millions of workers are about to be given their pink slips.”
January 2026 saw more layoffs than any of its kind since January 2009. While a large part of the layoffs has been attributed to economic turmoil, many companies have already begun cutting its staff due to AI-related goals.
“How many roles essentially consist of processing information and then presenting it to someone to make a decision? Now, not only the process and report will be automated, but perhaps the decision as well,” Yang wrote. “This will result in the great disembowelling of white-collar jobs.”
He advocated for adopting measures such as universal basic income, retraining programs, and taxes on AI companies to reduce impact.
Key Takeaways
- AI is expected to automate many white-collar jobs, resulting in significant layoffs.
- The economic impact of job losses will extend to essential service industries.
- Preventative measures like universal basic income and retraining programs are essential to mitigate the effects of AI on employment.