As artificial intelligence rapidly integrates into various industries, pessimistic narratives about AI destroying the job market continue to gain traction. However, the CEO of Goldman Sachs has published an article countering this narrative. On May 22, Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon published a signed article in The New York Times, stating that fears of AI causing a "job apocalypse and mass unemployment" are "overblown." He argues that AI will not eliminate jobs but will instead shift workers towards higher-value tasks and create entirely new roles focused on the management, deployment, verification, and regulation of AI. David Solomon also acknowledged that this technological transformation will inevitably bring structural disruptions to the labor market. Economists at Goldman Sachs predict that over the next decade, AI could automate up to 25% of current work hours, with white-collar industries such as banking, law, accounting, software, and customer service facing particularly significant impacts. This stance echoes voices from the venture capital community. Previously, Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz, publicly stated that fears of AI-induced unemployment are a "false narrative" and predicted that AI would overall drive employment growth in the economy.
David Solomon directly addresses the "job apocalypse" narrative, arguing that history has repeatedly disproven it.
In his article titled "I'm the Goldman Sachs CEO. The AI Job Apocalypse Is Overblown," David Solomon cites multiple technological revolutions in U.S. economic history as evidence. From electrification and the automotive industry to the proliferation of personal computers, each wave of technological disruption was followed by a continued rise in overall employment levels and living standards. He believes AI is likely to follow this historical pattern: eliminating some jobs while expanding others. Citing hyperscale cloud computing companies as an example, he points out that their capital expenditure for this year alone is projected to reach $700 billion. The data center construction driven by this spending will directly create a significant number of construction jobs. He emphasized:
The U.S. economy can and will adapt to major advances in technology.
David Solomon referenced the latest predictions from Goldman Sachs's internal economists, stating that over the next decade, AI has the potential to automate approximately 25% of current work hours. The most deeply affected areas are white-collar-intensive fields such as banking, law, accounting, software development, and customer service. These industries are core components of the global capital markets. A systematic change in their labor cost structures will have profound implications for corporate profitability, human resource allocation strategies, and even long-term valuation models. David Solomon noted that if AI does lead to job losses on an unprecedented scale, there should be a "coordinated effort" between the business community and governments to help workers and related institutions adapt to the new employment landscape.
a16z Co-founder Andreessen's View: AI Arrives at an Opportune Time
David Solomon's position aligns closely with Marc Andreessen's previous assessment. The co-founder of Netscape and Andreessen Horowitz stated that as many countries face shrinking populations, structural pressures from labor shortages will continue to build. AI and robotics are arriving "right at the moment we actually need them," serving to prevent the economy from declining alongside the population. This narrative framework positions AI as a productivity compensation mechanism against the backdrop of fading demographic dividends, fundamentally opposing the pessimistic narrative that paints AI as a creator of a flood of unemployment. Analysis suggests that Solomon and Andreessen's public statements reflect an effort by mainstream forces in Silicon Valley and Wall Street to actively shape the narrative around AI's social value, attempting to seize the high ground in the policy debate before it fully forms. For investors betting on AI infrastructure and related industry chains, collective statements from business leaders may help stabilize market expectations to some degree. However, the prediction of 25% of white-collar work hours being automated will likely remain a persistent structural risk variable for a considerable time to come.
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