The 2026 Transform AI conference revealed new insights and fast-tracked projections for artificial intelligence’s shift in the labor market.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and Microsoft executive Kai Fu Lee warn that 50% of entry-level white-collar jobs would be gone within one to five years. Other officials, though, are slowing that timeline down due to other variables outside of AI progress alone.
Cornell Professor Virginia Doellgast is studying the impact of AI on white-collar jobs in telecom and IT jobs. She is currently doing a research project on game development and how AI is being used in the video game space as well.
“Unions are most concerned with moving companies from replacing jobs to investing in worker skills and competencies and having more worker voice and how those changes and restructuring processes and practices happen,” Doellgast said. “As well as putting some real guardrails and limits on the use of AI in ways that might also endanger customers, patients, consumers of media, or consumers of games or people who are playing players.”
She adds that there’s a lot of AI hype.
“When companies announce AI-based layoffs, they inflate their share price,” says Doellgast. “So I think companies are attributing, or blaming, AI for other kinds of restructuring decisions that they would be making anyway.”
Doellgast’s research focuses on solutions.
“One thing that unions can do is really bring those frontline worker voices in,” she said. “And frontline workers really know from interacting with customers and patients and students and service users, why it’s important to have humans on the frontline, but also to say, well, how can we use these technologies in ways that actually improve the quality of patient care or customer service without just cutting jobs?”
She mentions unions a lot that are working to address this.
Many jobs do not have unions. Doellgast suggests proactive communication. If you have concerns or suggestions for AI guardrails to support workflows but not replace jobs, she suggests you reach out to management and human resources departments, where you can voice your expertise, emphasizing customer care and safety for the long-term benefits.