This week brought mixed news about AI's impact on workers. Goldman Sachs reported that 9.2% of U.S. companies now use AI for production, up from 7.4% last quarter. Despite this growth, the investment bank found limited disruption to jobs so far, with no widespread job losses yet. However, tech leaders shared strong warnings: Ford CEO Jim Farley predicted AI will replace "half of all white-collar workers" in the U.S., while Klarna's Sebastian Siemiatkowski fears AI could cause a recession through job cuts.

New research challenged assumptions about AI boosting productivity. A study showed AI slowed down experienced software developers who spent extra time debugging AI-generated code and writing prompts. This matches findings from Denmark showing only 3% productivity gains from AI tools. MIT economist Daron Acemoglu cautioned that markets have "overestimated productivity gains" from AI, with just 4.6% of U.S. tasks likely to see real efficiency improvements.

The debate about AI's job impact revealed sharp divides. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei warned of "entry-level white-collar jobs" disappearing, but investor Mark Cuban argued new AI roles will increase total employment, comparing it to past tech shifts. Amazon's Andy Jassy acknowledged some jobs will shrink while others grow as AI agents change workflows.