IMF chief warns AI’s ‘slow-moving tsunami’ is coming-and it could leave Gen Z grads as baristas

Key Points:

• IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva highlighted concerns about young people entering the labor market, noting that AI advancements could eliminate many routine jobs that traditionally serve as entry points for youth.
• The IMF estimates that around 40% of jobs worldwide will be affected by AI through augmentation, downgrading, or elimination, with middle-skilled workers and advanced economies facing significant disruption.
• Georgieva and Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam emphasized the need for governments to rethink education and treat labor market changes as a long-term structural issue to prevent a loss of trust and skills among young workers.
• While some leaders like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei express cautious optimism about AI's impact on jobs, suggesting productivity gains and slower-than-expected job losses, others warn of potential social consequences if entry-level job opportunities continue to decline.
• President Donald Trump has expressed optimism that AI, which he terms "super intelligence," will ultimately create more jobs than it displaces, reflecting a more positive outlook on the technology's economic impact.