AI boom fuels excitement but deepens job anxiety

Industry leaders at the Reuters NEXT conference in New York, steered away from fears of an artificial intelligence bubble and instead emphasised the sweeping economic and employment disruptions already under way.

According to Reuters, AI is now regarded as the most significant technological shift since the internet boom, drawing trillions in investment, driving up markets, fuelling a global chip crunch, and intensifying regulatory scrutiny—while simultaneously stoking widespread anxiety over job losses.

JP Morgan Asset Management has noted that AI-linked capital expenditure contributed more to global GDP growth in the first half of 2025 than consumer spending. Bespoke Investment Group further estimated that almost a third of the rise in global market capitalisation since the launch of ChatGPT can be traced back to just 28 AI-related companies.

Across panel sessions on Wednesday and Thursday, corporate leaders primarily focused on how AI would reshape the workplace, even as some acknowledged concerns over job cuts. Writer co-founder and CEO May Habib said customers had recently begun urging rapid headcount reductions as AI tools were rolled out, adding that clients were pushing for immediate workforce trims of up to 30%. SAP chief executive Christian Klein said employees at his company had raised persistent questions about the future of their roles, explaining that even legal functions were now exposed to AI-driven efficiency.

Reuters reported that job displacement fears are well-founded. A U.S. Federal Reserve study has already documented the loss of entry-level jobs and scaled-back hiring plans due to AI adoption, while an August Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 71% of respondents were worried that AI would permanently displace workers.

Despite this, a strong counter-narrative emerged at the conference. Joseph Lavorgna, counsellor to the U.S. Treasury secretary, said the emphasis should be on AI’s potential to enhance labour rather than replace it, noting that policy frameworks must encourage businesses to invest in the technology as a workforce complement.

Still, labour market data tell a worrying story. Unemployment among recent college graduates has risen sharply, with joblessness among 20- to 24-year-olds holding bachelor’s degrees reaching 9.5%, compared with the national rate of 4.4%, according to the U.S. Labour Department. EY chief innovation officer Joe Depa likened AI’s impact to earlier technological revolutions but said the pace of disruption was far faster, asserting that adaptability had now become the “new job security”, particularly for middle managers. Moderna’s chief people and digital technology officer, Tracey Franklin, said companies were beginning to integrate IT and human-capital planning more tightly as a result.

Concerns extended beyond employment. The Reuters/Ipsos survey also found that 61% of respondents worried about escalating electricity consumption from data centres. Cisco Systems’ senior vice president of portfolio strategy, Jeff Schultz, said AI infrastructure was already straining power systems, explaining that agentic AI requires significantly more stable network traffic than earlier chatbot models. Schultz maintained, however, that large-scale investment in AI remained justified given its potential.

Backlash to energy-heavy data centre expansion is mounting in regions such as Virginia and Pennsylvania, even among supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump, who has positioned himself as a champion of AI while weighing curbs on state-level regulation.

Speakers from the media and creative sectors voiced particular unease, warning that AI-generated content risked undermining human creativity. Media executive Shari Redstone said the industry needed to be assertive in protecting writers, actors and musicians from technological displacement. Actor Sarah Jessica Parker told Reuters editor-in-chief Alessandra Galloni that audiences still crave the unpredictability and emotion of human performance, adding that despite advances in digital enhancement, the core human “live nerve” of creative work remained irreplaceable.

The conference ultimately reflected both the extraordinary promise and deep turbulence unleashed by AI’s rapid rise, as excitement over innovation continued to be shadowed by economic, ethical and workforce concerns that are still unfolding at breakneck speed.