The Future of Work in the New Era of AI

By Moha Shah Venture Capital Leader | Future of Mobility, Climate, & Insurtech/Fintech | Strategy, Innovation & Digital Transformation

Prompt-generated image via Freepik

Today, Gen AI-powered code editors such as Cursor, Windsurf, Replit, and Lovable are enabling people with different levels of coding skills to build new digital products and services. Past playbooks are being refreshed as AI tools increase the velocity of product development and augment roles across many industries. What’s also becoming clear is that the future of work is being reshaped in the new era of AI.

AI and job displacements across many sectors from financial services to technology are dominating the latest news headlines. A recent report on CBS News offers insights into the current state of the labor market for recent graduates and how AI is changing the hiring landscape.

Also, many CEOs are publicly addressing how AI is being adopted and transforming their companies. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff recently shared that AI accounts for 30% to 50% of the company’s workload. In a message to Amazon employees on June 17, 2025, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy offered his views on Generative AI’s impact on jobs.

"As we roll out more Generative AI and agents, it should change the way our work is done. We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs," noted Jassy.

The forecasts on how AI will impact jobs vary among experts across business, technology, government, and academia. MIT Professor David Autor recently stated, "We're not good at predicting what the new work will be; we're good at predicting how current work will change."

AI’s Rise: Emerging Questions About the Future of Work

Photo by Andy Kelly on Unsplash 

Today, there are more questions than answers on how the future of work will evolve with the rise of AI. Some of my questions include the following:

• How will AI impact different industries such as transportation, financial services, and education?

• Which roles across different industries will be created, augmented, or reduced?

• How should K-12 students, university graduates, and industry professionals prepare for jobs of the future?

• What skills should be cultivated as AI adoption increases across different industries?

• How can we instill responsible AI practices as consumers and enterprises adopt AI?

• How will government leaders ensure that their citizens learn about AI to participate in an increasingly AI-first economy?

While many of these questions are worthy of a graduate-level thesis, we can begin to address them practically. I believe that we can reflect on recent technology waves and learn from startup founders building AI-first ventures to illuminate what the future of work may look like during the emerging AI era.

Reflecting on Past Technology Waves

Photo by Julian Christ on Unsplash

Technology breakthroughs and the founding of innovative startups over the past few decades also sparked questions about the future of work across different industries. In the early 2000s, consumer internet companies such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn ushered in a new social media era. Established marketing agencies, for example, had to quickly adapt and embrace those social media platforms to create marketing campaigns that would resonate with digital-first users. 

In 2007, the launch of Apple’s iPhone unleashed the mobile app economy, which led to the founding of many innovative startups, including ride-hail companies such as Uber and Lyft. The emergence of Uber in 2009 and Lyft in 2012 raised existential questions about the taxi industry across many cities. These technology waves have resulted in the emergence of new business models and generated new roles.

Today, Gen AI-powered applications such as ChatGPT, Cursor, Claude, and Gemini have emerged due to advances in cloud computing, GPUs, and neural networks. While not all AI-first applications will achieve high user adoption, many of them will transform how we work.

Many AI-first startups are launching at a breakneck pace. New unicorns – companies with $1B+ valuation – are emerging, and many are poised to become category-defining companies over the next few years. As a result, I believe listening to and learning from startup founders who are building AI-first ventures remains important.    

Perspectives From Founders Building AI-First Startups

In my experience working with early-stage startup founders, I’ve learned about their goals and roadmaps to build new products or services across diverse verticals. I often walk away with an appreciation for their vision and passion to solve a problem, especially if their solution can make a sizeable impact to serve their target consumer, industry, or community. Today, many startup founders are leveraging modern technology stacks and Gen AI-powered tools to accelerate their product development cycles.

To learn how AI will reshape the future of work, I recently connected with several female founders building AI-first startups across different industries. Their perspectives are captured below.

• Biotech Helena Mistry, Founder of Phrma Bridge, noted, “AI is set to transform life sciences from the inside out. It’s accelerating drug development, refining clinical trials, and bringing treatments to patients at unprecedented speed. Behind the scenes, it’s empowering scientists and business teams alike — automating the repetitive, revealing deeper insights, and amplifying what humans do best. In the next era of life sciences, work won’t just move faster—it will think faster.”

• Consumer Beatriz Zanforlin, Founder of Coral, stated, “We will have more human-AI interactions and fewer human-human interactions. We’ll stop exercising our social skills naturally and will need to be more intentional about practicing them.”

• Digital Health Aanchal Dasoar Arora, Co-Founder of Mendhai Health, said, “In healthcare, women founders are able to leverage AI to tackle care gaps long ignored, delivering personalized solutions across sex, race, and body types.”

These founders’ insights offer a lens into the future as they are at the forefront of leveraging AI to solve problems, serve diverse consumer segments, and build new ventures that aim to transform different industries.

The Future of Work: Adapting in the New Era of AI

Photo by Ant Rozetsky on Unsplash 

As this AI era unfolds, I don’t believe that all industries will be rewired uniformly. My current perspective is that the future of work will require adaptation. It will be important to stay curious, embrace learning, and test new AI tools. Startup founders building AI-first companies also bring valuable perspectives into emerging technology trends.  

Additionally, leaders across business, academia, government, and technology need to stay informed on AI’s latest developments to enable training or upskilling for different industries and communities. The World Economic Forum surveyed over 1,000 global employers across 22 industries for its 2025 Future of Jobs Report. The survey revealed that 40% of the employers anticipate reducing their workforce where AI can automate tasks, and two-thirds plan to hire talent with specific AI skills.

We remain in the early innings, so it will take time for impacts across different sectors to be realized. The recent AI wave will unlock new innovation, investments, and upskilling. Check out my previous WxAI guest post Gen AI: Unlocking a New Wave of Innovation, Investments, and Upskilling. New roles will be created, and other roles will be augmented. Everyone will also need to embrace change to remain ahead of the curve because past playbooks won’t ensure future success. 

Bonus Section | Online Videos Discussing AI’s Impacts on the Future of Work 

Below are YouTube videos highlighting how different jobs or industries are predicted to be impacted by AI.

• Accounting: “How AI Will Transform Accounting: A $100B Opportunity Explained” | a16z on December 17, 2024

• Product Management: “Microsoft CPO: If You Aren’t Prototyping With AI, You’re Doing It Wrong” | Aparna Chennapragada | Lenny’s Podcast on May 18, 2025

• Retail: “How AI And Automation Are Taking Over Grocery Stores And Drive-Thru Lanes” | CNBC on July 15, 2024

• Software Engineering: “Andrej Karpathy “Software Is Changing (Again)” | Y Combinator on June 18, 2025

How do you think AI will impact the future of how we work? Share your thoughts in the comments below.