Being realistic about how AI can change your job could save your career or help you develop a lucrative new one.
“You gotta be as honest as you can with yourself and take a look at, is my job something that AI can take? Or is my job something that if I get good at AI, will be more in demand? If it’s one that’s truly going be taken, then you’re going to have to re-skill now,” Tony Robbins told Yahoo Finance at the Milken Institute conference this week.
Robbins added that some companies are providing capital to re-skill workers instead of simple layoffs. However, he contended that AI-driven displacement will become “a bigger issue in the next 24 months. I think the government’s going to have to intervene if companies really displace,” he said.
Robbins is a prominent peak-performance strategist, bestselling author, and prolific entrepreneur.
CEOs and elite leaders — from financial titans like Paul Tudor Jones to tech founders like Salesforce (CRM) co-founder Marc Benioff — have flocked to him. Robbins bypasses traditional management theory to focus on cognitive restructuring and psychological conditioning. The practice helps high performers break through mental blocks to make high-stakes decisions under pressure.
The guidance from Robbins comes as tech giants conduct large layoffs in part because of AI.
Block’s (XYZ) cut its workforce by a whopping 40% earlier this year. Oracle (ORCL) reportedly laid off up to 30,000 workers across the US, Mexico, and other countries on April 1.
Meta (META) reportedly is canning 8,000 people, or 10% of its workforce, in an efficiency push.
And this week, Coinbase (COIN) said it would lay off 700 people, or 14% of its workforce, as it embraces AI.
Robbins added that a mass number of people are going to need retraining: “You are not going to be replaced by AI, you’re replaced by someone who knows how to use AI … if you’re a software engineer right now, there’s no future unless you become an AI engineer. There’s definitely an opportunity there or cyber in that area.”
Brian Sozzi is Yahoo Finance’s Executive Editor and a member of Yahoo Finance’s editorial leadership team. Follow Sozzi on X @BrianSozzi, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Tips on stories? Email brian.sozzi@yahoofinance.com.
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