Jamie Dimon: “AI Will Eliminate Jobs”, but Workers With the Right Skills Will Thrive

Hiring in various industries might change with the use of artificial intelligence, but there are a few skills that can assist most people to protect their future jobs, as indicated by the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, Jamie Dimon.

″[AI] will eliminate jobs. That doesn’t mean that people won’t have other jobs,” Dimon told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” on Sunday. “My advice to people would be critical thinking … learn EQ [emotional quotient, also known as emotional intelligence], learn how to be good in a meeting, how to communicate, how to write. You’ll have plenty of jobs.”

Dimon is making a prediction in the midst of an AI reckoning of the American workforce. Certain professionals note that AI is one of the reasons why the unemployment rate among the youth is increasing, and in May, the CEO of AI company Anthropic, Dario Amodei, said that the technology will eliminate up to half of all white-collar jobs within the next five years.

Other CEOs see changes on the horizon, too. “It’s very clear that AI is going to change literally every job,” Walmart CEO Doug McMillon shared with The Wall Street Journal in an interview that was published on Sept. 26, adding: “Maybe there’s a job in the world that AI won’t change, but I haven’t thought of it.”

On his part, Dimon has earlier pointed to the importance of soft-skilled leaders. Practiced leaders can pose good questions and learn from their competitors, clients, and their own failures, as he did in July 2024 in a LinkedIn video series titled “This is Working”.

“If you don’t have an accurate assessment of the real world out there, what’s changing, what the ideas are, you will eventually fail,” said Dimon.

There are other professionals and corporate figures who tend to concur with the feeling of Dimon. One specific secret of success in the era of AI is critical thinking or the skill of processing information and making conclusions, and is what Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman told CNBC in an episode of its “Closing Bell Overtime” on Aug. 8. Although AI is capable of numerous administrative tasks and some forms of skills, it is not able to make delicate decisions, research findings indicate.

“You’re going to want to be creative. You’re going to want to be [good at] critical thinking. And you’re going to want to be flexible,” said Garman. “I think the ability to learn new things and adapt is going to be just as important as any particular skill that you learn.”

Likewise, effective communication abilities and emotional intelligence are also necessary components of the success of the contemporary labor market, according to some scholars. Such a quality as the possibility to properly express your thoughts and communicate with colleagues has comparatively rather clear advantages. The fact that your workmates regard you as someone who communicates well can help you build relationships with other people and may make you more liked and influential in the workplace.

You can also make your communication with other people better by preparing in your mind before you talk with them, asking good questions, taking responsibility when you do something wrong, giving other people credit when they do something good and having small talk with your co-workers, but it is listening that makes you a great communicator, according to an associate professor of Harvard University, Alison Wood Brooks.

“Successful conversationalists and successful employees go a step further than a perfunctory head nod and making eye contact,” Wood Brooks told CNBC Make It in July. “Listening to somebody’s answer, then probing for more information, is a superhero move, and a shockingly low number of people think to do it. You should show [you’re listening] by saying [you are] out loud.”