Billionaire tech CEO says bosses shouldn’t ‘BS’ employees about the impact AI will have on jobs

Corporate leaders can’t “bulls—” their employees about the impact of artificial intelligence on the workforce and the ways in which the technology will affect jobs more broadly, according to one tech billionaire.

Jim Kavanaugh, the CEO of World Wide Technology (WWT), told CNBC that people are “too smart” to accept that AI won’t change the way that they manage their work and that no jobs will be eliminated due to the transformative nature of the technology.

WWT is an enterprise technology solutions provider that focuses on services such as cloud computing, IT security, data analytics, artificial intelligence, and consulting services.

“If you think you’re going to try to game this, and that you’re going to tell employees nothing’s going to change, and everything’s going to be fine, that’s just BS,” Kavanaugh said in an interview last week.

Kavanaugh noted that, though there is no playbook for how business leaders should communicate disruptive macroeconomic events, such as the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on jobs, the job of a CEO is “to be as transparent as possible and always honest with their employees about where they stand.”

With AI, “there’s going to be all kinds of changes,” Kavanaugh added. “If I could give any advice, it’s that everybody should be a student of AI and tech and not be afraid of it.”

Even though it’s a given AI will impact the workforce, “none of us have it all completely figured out,” he said. “If anybody comes in and tells you, ‘I can tell you exactly how this is going to impact jobs and how it’s going to impact everything we’re doing,’ they’re lying. Because nobody knows.”

Kavanaugh stressed that, overall, he’s an optimist when it comes to AI’s positive impacts and its ability to improve productivity.

“Sitting there and saying, ‘I’m going to try to throw cold water on this fire, I’m going to try to put it out and ignore it,’ that’s a complete mistake.”

“I believe in embracing [AI] and learning and being realistic about it. Because there will be jobs that will be disrupted, there’s no question about that. But, for the most part, I truly believe it will be an enhancer and an accelerator of what we’re all doing,” Kavanaugh told CNBC.

Kavanaugh co-founded WWT in 1990 with fellow St. Louis, Missouri-based entrepreneur David Steward as a reseller of technology equipment. Today, WWT is a tech giant in its own right, generating revenues of $20 billion annually.

Kavanaugh currently has a net worth of $7 billion, according to real-time data from business news magazine Forbes. Prior to co-founding the company, Kavanaugh represented the U.S. national soccer team in the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

Some companies have even been actively touting the benefits of AI in reducing their overall personnel needs. For example, Swedish fintech firm Klarna said last month that it was able to slash its workforce from 5,000 to 3,800 in a single year thanks to AI, and then pay its remaining workers more.

The “buy now, pay later” pioneer told the BBC it is looking to further reduce employee numbers next year, to 2,000 people, through the use of AI in areas like marketing and customer service.