Hardly a week goes by without headline-grabbing news announcing the latest, industry-altering changes brought on by another round of artificial intelligence (AI) innovations.
The most recent example was the announcement that DeepSeek — a relatively unknown, Chinese-owned, open-source, AI platform — introduced R1, a ChatGPT-like AI model capable of mimicking the functionalities of Google, Nvidia, Meta and other leading tech tools, but at a fraction of the cost of what those tech giants spent.
DeepSeek claimed it invested less than $6 million in the development of the new app, which, if true, represents only a drop in the bucket compared to the many millions of dollars U.S.-based tech heavyweights invested in their AI models.
Although security concerns about DeepSeek linger, the announcement was enough to trigger a 17-point drop in the stock value of Nvidia, which bills itself as the “world leader in artificial intelligence computing.”
Not only did Nvidia experience the single biggest one-day stock decline in U.S. history, but DeepSeek’s move also led to a 3-point drop in the Nasdaq exchange and impacted countless other chip makers and data center operators. Upon hearing the news, President Trump said DeepSeek’s claim should serve as a ”wake-up call” to all U.S. tech giants.
Yet, despite all the sound and fury, by the next day, both Nvidia and the Nasdaq appeared to be on the rebound.
If nothing else, the entire episode illustrates the volatility and uncertainty now present in the artificial intelligence industry as companies continue to pour billions of dollars into the development and deployment of new AI functionalities.
The only thing that appears to be 100 percent certain about AI is how enthusiastic organizations appear to be in investing in the technology.
Goldman Sachs says, globally, corporate investments in AI could reach $200 billion as of this year while PwC says 63 percent of “top-performing” companies are now increasing their cloud computing budgets to ensure that they can fully accommodate their growing AI needs.
While continued growth of AI appears to be a certainty, what is harder to pin down is how AI will affect the employment picture worldwide.
“Most industries will be impacted by AI,” says Susan Lindeque, CEO of Avestix Group, an investment firm specializing in investing in new technologies. “But what AI will mean for jobs worldwide is still being formulated.”
Lindeque recently shared her views with Forbes, pointing to a recent announcement from Bloomberg that many leading banks — including JPMC, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs — are planning to phase out as many as 200,000 positions over the next three years because the job responsibilities associated with those roles will be absorbed by AI.
More broadly, she cites a new study from the World Economic Forum (WEF) that determined AI could ultimately result in 41 percent of organizations worldwide downsizing their staff over the next five years.
But, she says, focusing only on AI-related employment reductions misses the big picture.
“While it’s true that the WEF concluded that advancements in AI could mean the elimination of as many as 92 million roles around the world during the next five years, it also found that AI could be responsible for creating as many as 170 million new jobs worldwide,” Lindeque says. “In other words, business investments in artificial intelligence could result in 78 million net-new positions over the next five years.”
Industry analysis supports the view that AI will drive greater job growth in the long run.
PwC’s newly-released 2025 AI Business Predictions forecast that employment needs will expand exponentially before the end of this year because of AI-related needs.
Executives should prepare now, according to the report, to “welcome a host of new members to the team this year: digital workers known as AI agents.” Not only could these AI agents “easily double your knowledge workforce,” but they will “autonomously perform many tasks, such as handling routine customer inquiries, producing ‘first drafts’ of software code” and other mundane chores. As a result, PwC predicts, business leaders will likely see improvements in their “speed to market, customer interactions, product design and so on.”
More importantly, the report downplays fears that AI-enriched bots will be replacing people anytime soon.
“Humans will still be instrumental since game-changing value comes from a human-led, tech-powered approach,” PwC researchers say. “People instruct and oversee AI agents as they automate simpler tasks. People iterate with agents on more complex challenges, such as innovation and design. And people ‘orchestrate’ teams of agents, assigning tasks and then improving and stitching together the results.”
And those people will require leadership, says PwC. The growth of AI will likely mean more executives will be “responsible for integrating digital workers into workforce strategies, then monitoring and governing them.”
Lindeque agrees, saying the sooner companies begin leveraging AI and training employees to manage AI functions, the sooner those organizations will be able to capitalize on both.
“Businesses will need to accommodate AI and human workers,” she says. “Those that do so quickly will be better positioned to capitalize on both.”
Disclaimer: This article contains sponsored marketing content. It is intended for promotional purposes and should not be considered as an endorsement or recommendation by our website. Readers are encouraged to conduct their own research and exercise their own judgment before making any decisions based on the information provided in this article.
