2025 was not the year labor economists hoped for. Last year was the worst year of non-recession job growth since 2003. Tariffs, tighter immigration, and economic uncertainty have all played a role—and artificial intelligence has become an easy scapegoat. But Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang doesn’t see AI as the villain behind today’s job market woes.
Instead, he views the current slowdown as a period of adjustment—growing pains before a more productive and ultimately more prosperous economy takes shape.
“Our job is not to wrangle a spreadsheet or type into a keyboard—our job is generally more meaningful than that,” Huang told TIME. “I’m fairly confident that AI will drive productivity, revenue growth, and therefore more hiring.”
But his optimism comes with a caveat: the transition won’t be seamless. The rise of AI will force a broad reshuffling of roles and responsibilities across the job market, demanding new skills and adaptability from workers.
“This is for certain: everyone’s job will change because of AI. Some jobs will disappear—every industrial revolution some jobs are just gone—but a whole bunch of jobs are created,” the 62-year-old said.
