Episodes

  • Microsoft's AI Chief: Most Office Jobs Will Be Automated in 18 Months
    Feb 18 2026

    Microsoft AI chief Mustafa Suleyman says most white-collar tasks will be fully automated within 12 to 18 months. Dario Amodei describes a near-future "country of geniuses in a data center." Every major AI leader is landing on the same window. We unpack each prediction, test it against our consulting experience, and break down what this means for knowledge workers right now.

    What we cover:
    Suleyman's 12-18 month prediction for knowledge work automation
    Why his team's reaction on X was hilarious
    Amodei's "country of geniuses in a data center" concept
    Why AI will solve problems humanity never could
    The convergence: Altman, Musk, Hassabis all on similar timelines
    Our experience: clients say "AI can't do this" and we prove them wrong every time
    90% of knowledge work is automatable today with current tools
    The "write your tasks on paper" test
    Jobs displaced last: medical, physical labor, human interaction roles
    Robotics is about 1 year behind AI developments
    New pricing models: charging AI like an employee
    From individual contributor to agent director
    How to compress 5 days of work into 1
    Why people who never wanted to manage can thrive with agents
    The career path is changing right now

    Key Stats:
    Suleyman: 12-18 months for full knowledge work automation
    Amodei: "country of geniuses" by ~2027
    1 trillionfold increase in training compute over last 15 years
    Another 1,000x increase expected in next 3 years
    Amodei: 50% of entry-level white-collar jobs at risk in 1-5 years
    Goldman Sachs: net AI job losses to "increase meaningfully" in 2026
    Stuart Russell: leaders confronting possibility of 80% unemployment
    Most software engineers now use AI for majority of code production

    ⬇️ RESOURCES & LINKS ⬇️

    🤖 FREE GUIDE: AI Predictions Breakdown Download: https://whataboutai.com/guides/ai-predictions

    📬 Get Weekly AI Updates Newsletter: https://whataboutai.com/newsletter

    🎙️ Listen on Your Favorite Platform Podcast: https://whataboutai.com/podcast

    💼 AI Consulting for Your Business https://whataboutai.com/business


    TIMESTAMPS
    0:00 Intro: AI predictions from 12 months to 3 years out
    0:30 Suleyman's 12-18 month prediction for knowledge work
    1:00 His team's hilarious reactions on X
    1:30 The boldest prediction yet from any AI leader
    2:00 Altman, Amodei, Hassabis, Musk all converging
    2:30 Even today you can automate most knowledge work
    3:00 The "write your tasks on paper" exercise
    3:30 10% is the only piece AI can't do yet
    4:00 We keep telling clients "actually, it can do that"
    4:30 Dario Amodei's recent podcast and essay
    5:00 "Country of geniuses in a data center" explained
    5:30 One prompt to pick up your entire job
    6:00 AI solving medical, math, and spacetime problems
    6:30 Where it lands (US vs. other countries) matters
    7:00 Jobs displaced last: medical and physical labor
    7:30 Robotics about 1 year behind AI
    8:00 New pricing models: AI charged like an employee
    8:30 How many jobs are at risk from this
    9:00 What this means for knowledge workers right now
    9:30 Don't wait for the company to automate your job
    10:00 Become the director of agents
    10:30 Individual contributors and agent management
    11:00 Compress 5 days of work into 1
    11:30 The career path is changing now

    AI predictions 2026, Mustafa Suleyman, Dario Amodei, knowledge work automation, AI jobs, What About AI, country of geniuses, future of work, agent management

    #AIAutomation #FutureOfWork #WhatAboutAI #KnowledgeWork #AIAgents #MustafaSuleyman #DarioAmodei


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    13 mins
  • AI Safety Researchers Are Quitting — And Claude Knows When It's Being Watched
    Feb 17 2026

    In one week: Anthropic's safety chief resigned warning "the world is in peril." Half of xAI's co-founders left. An OpenAI researcher quit citing concerns about manipulation. The headlines are alarming — but the full story is more nuanced, and in some ways, more concerning.

    What we cover:

    Mrinank Sharma's resignation from Anthropic — full context behind "world is in peril"
    Why the full letters tell a different story than the headlines
    Half of xAI's 12 co-founders have departed
    The structural burnout problem for AI safety researchers
    Why safety roles are "the focal point of pressure" at AI companies
    Claude detecting when it's being evaluated (~13% of the time)
    Claude told testers: "I think you're testing me"
    Why Anthropic's constitutional AI approach didn't work
    The shift from rules-based safety to training-based alignment
    Claude participating in bioweapon info when pushed in edge cases
    The hallucination problem and its connection to safety
    LLM weight-setting and ideological challenges
    Practical advice: guardrails, agent access, manual approvals
    James's CAPTCHA story: teaching Claude to bypass one (and it never forgot)

    Key Stats:

    Claude detected evaluations ~13% of the time (Anthropic System Card)
    Half of xAI's 12 co-founders have now left
    Anthropic valued at ~$350 billion as of Feb 2026
    Claude Opus 4.5 refused 88.39% of agentic misuse requests (vs. 66.96% for Opus 4.1)
    Only 1.4% of prompt injection attacks succeeded against Opus 4.5 (vs. 10.8% for Sonnet 4.5)
    OpenAI's Superalignment team dissolved in 2024
    Dario Amodei warned AI could affect half of white-collar jobs

    ⬇️ RESOURCES & LINKS ⬇️

    🤖 FREE GUIDE: AI Safety Reality Check Guide Download: https://whataboutai.com/guides/ai-safety

    📬 Get Weekly AI Updates Newsletter: https://whataboutai.com/newsletter

    🎙️ Listen on Your Favorite Platform Podcast: https://whataboutai.com/podcast

    💼 AI Consulting for Your Business https://whataboutai.com/business


    TIMESTAMPS
    00:00 - Safety and security changes in the world of AI
    01:00 - If you dive deeper, it may not be quite that bad
    02:20 - AI is getting better at understanding nuance
    03:00 - If you push AI enough it will still get intense fast
    03:30 - What happened with the ‘constitutional’ approach
    04:15 - Why there may be a higher level of turnover in security
    05:30 - Why there is so much pressure to continue progress
    07:00 - Why you should still approach any new tech cautiously
    08:30 - Our advice for leveraging the tech with safety in mind
    09:45 - How to build your own level of confidence in AI
    10:15 - Why the ‘hallucination’ problem is still very real


    AI safety researchers quitting, Anthropic safety, Claude evaluation awareness, xAI co-founders leaving, AI guardrails, What About AI, Mrinank Sharma, AI alignment

    #AISafety #WhatAboutAI #ClaudeAI #Anthropic #AIAlignment #AIRisks #AIGuardrails


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    13 mins
  • 4 Possible Futures for Your Job by 2030 - We Might be Heading Toward the Worst One
    Feb 16 2026

    The World Economic Forum just released a framework mapping four possible futures for the global job market by 2030. Two variables determine which scenario we get: AI advancement speed and workforce readiness. The combinations produce four outcomes — and based on what we're seeing on the ground, we're headed toward the one nobody wants.

    What we cover:

    The WEF's four scenarios: Supercharged Progress, Age of Displacement, Co-Pilot Economy, Stalled Progress
    Where we are right now based on our consulting experience
    Why most companies aren't ready (and some think we rigged our demos)
    The AI plateau that never happened
    New chipsets already in warehouses that haven't been deployed yet
    Davos 2026: Hassabis, Amodei, Musk, and Suleyman on timelines
    Microsoft AI chief's 12-18 month prediction for knowledge work
    Knowledge work vs. physical labor: different timelines, same destination
    Why physical labor disruption will move FASTER when it arrives
    The virtualization analogy: why bottlenecks always get solved
    AI building itself: ChatGPT 5.3, Claude Opus 4.6
    The business readiness inflection point: 2-3 years
    What to do whether you're an individual or a company

    Key Stats:

    WEF: 170M new roles created, 92M displaced, net +78M by 2030
    54% of executives expect AI to displace jobs
    83% of organizations at low AI maturity
    40% of skills required for jobs expected to change
    AI role wages up 27% since 2019
    2/3 of CSOs expect AI to shape strategy in next 5 years
    Only 1% of 2025 layoffs were due to AI productivity gains

    ⬇️ RESOURCES & LINKS ⬇️

    🤖 FREE GUIDE: WEF 2030 Jobs Scenarios Guide Download: https://whataboutai.com/guides/wef-2030

    📬 Get Weekly AI Updates Newsletter: https://whataboutai.com/newsletter

    🎙️ Listen on Your Favorite Platform Podcast: https://whataboutai.com/podcast

    💼 AI Consulting for Your Business https://whataboutai.com/business


    TIMESTAMPS
    00:00 - World Economic Forum take on business readiness
    00:45 - What we are seeing from the business world
    03:00 - AI is still continuing to progress at an exponential rate
    03:55 - How various combinations of industry/size are responding
    04:55 - How close or far are we from AI plateauing capability-wise
    06:20 - Why the physical world may actually be disrupted even faster
    07:30 - Comparing the technology lifecycle curve to virtualization era
    08:25 - Discussion on a potential ‘AI bubble’ or potential bottlenecks
    10:20 - What we think is coming in terms of business readiness


    World Economic Forum jobs 2030, WEF AI scenarios, future of work, AI job displacement, knowledge work AI, What About AI, AI predictions 2030, workforce readiness, AI disruption

    #FutureOfWork #WEF2030 #AIJobs #WhatAboutAI #WorkforceDisruption #AIReadiness #KnowledgeWork



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    13 mins
  • AI Is Coming for HR - But HR Might Come Out Ahead
    Feb 16 2026

    HR professionals are in a unique position: their department is being disrupted by AI while simultaneously being asked to lead the company's AI transformation. In this episode, we break down what's actually happening — from ADP's new AI agents serving 1.1M+ businesses to the uncomfortable truth about how many HR professionals have barely used AI beyond making caricatures.

    What we cover:
    → ADP's AI agents: payroll, tax, reports, and promotion initiation
    → The HR paradox: most automated AND leading the charge
    → Our experience: HR professionals privately admitting they're clueless about AI
    → What AI can already automate (57% of HR's repetitive tasks)
    → What AI can't do: the subjective, empathetic, human side
    → AI-driven promotions: eliminating "great smile" bias vs. losing context
    → HR professionals as the organizational glue
    → Why HR could become the most technical department
    → Step-by-step advice for HR leaders
    → The Chief AI Officer role emerging
    → How to shift from admin work to strategic value

    Key Stats:
    • ADP AI agents: 1.1M clients, 140 countries, 42M wage earners
    • HR teams spend 57% of time on repetitive tasks
    • 89% of HR leaders expect AI to impact jobs in 2026
    • 83% of organizations at low AI maturity in HR
    • AI reduces time-to-hire by up to 50%
    • AI cuts payroll processing time by up to 70%
    • 30% cost savings per hire using AI screening
    • 84% of large orgs agree AI will streamline but not replace HR

    ⬇️ RESOURCES & LINKS ⬇️

    🤖 FREE GUIDE: HR AI Disruption Guide Download: https://whataboutai.com/guides/hr-ai

    📬 Get Weekly AI Updates Newsletter: https://whataboutai.com/newsletter

    🎙️ Listen on Your Favorite Platform Podcast: https://whataboutai.com/podcast

    💼 AI Consulting for Your Business https://whataboutai.com/business


    TIMESTAMPS
    00:25 - HR use cases of AI (ADP stat)
    01:50 - HR professionals experience with AI
    02:30 - Advice for HR professionals around AI
    03:00 - How AI may help remove subjectivity
    03:45 - Key value add from the HR role
    04:30 - The benefits to HR from AI adoption
    05:15 - AI empowering HR leaders to provide more value
    06:00 - Helping HR professionals manage everything
    07:55 - HR can focus more on strategy with help from AI
    09:50 - Love to hear from more HR folks!

    AI human resources, HR AI automation, ADP AI agents, human resources jobs, AI hiring, AI payroll, HR technology, AI workforce, What About AI, HR career advice, AI promotions, HR disruption

    #AIinHR #HumanResources #FutureOfWork #WhatAboutAI #HRTech #AIWorkforce #CareerAdvice


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    11 mins
  • The Job Interview Is Changing - Here's What May Replace It
    Feb 16 2026

    The hiring process is changing faster than most people realize. McKinsey is now testing candidates on their ability to work with AI. 87% of companies use AI to screen resumes. And Gartner predicts 50% of organizations will require AI-free skills assessments while 75% will test for AI proficiency - simultaneously.

    What we cover:
    → McKinsey's Lilli AI tool in final-round interviews
    → Two divergent hiring paths: network-driven vs. merit-based
    → Why the resume is losing its role as step one
    → Skills assessments replacing traditional screening
    → Real client story: using AI to outperform every other candidate
    → The "dual demonstration" strategy (AI + manual approach)
    → Why candidates surprisingly prefer AI interviews
    → The job market reality: 4x more applicants, 1/4 the jobs
    → Teaching the interviewer as a hiring hack
    → How to prepare whether employed or job searching

    Key Stats:
    • McKinsey: ~1M applications/year, ~1% acceptance rate
    • McKinsey now has 20,000-25,000 AI agents for 40,000 employees
    • 87% of companies use AI to screen resumes
    • 85% of employers use skills-based hiring (up from 56% in 2022)
    • 50% of orgs will require AI-free skills assessments (Gartner)
    • 75% of hiring will include AI proficiency testing by 2027 (Gartner)
    • 61% increase in critical thinking test completions (TestGorilla)


    ⬇️ RESOURCES & LINKS ⬇️

    🤖 FREE GUIDE: AI-Ready Hiring Guide Download: https://whataboutai.com/guides/ai-hiring

    📬 Get Weekly AI Updates Newsletter: https://whataboutai.com/newsletter

    🎙️ Listen on Your Favorite Platform Podcast: https://whataboutai.com/podcast

    💼 AI Coaching & Consulting https://whataboutai.com/business


    TIMESTAMPS
    00:00 - Case study of leveraging AI tools for hiring
    01:20 - Two divergent paths of AI tools in hiring
    02:20 - How AI is changing the hiring process on both sides
    03:00 - The surprising preference of candidates (related to AI)
    03:30 - AI can introduce more empathy into the process
    04:20 - The reality of the macro economy related to hiring
    05:20 - How to teach interviewers something about AI
    06:10 - Why the resume is outdated and more coming changes
    06:50 - Will the resume be the first step moving forward?
    08:15 - What applicants can do to become ‘AI ready’
    09:00 - How our client navigated a recent interview process


    AI hiring process, McKinsey Lilli AI interview, AI job search 2026, skills assessment hiring, resume dead, AI ready interview, What About AI, job interview tips, AI screening, career advice 2026

    #AIHiring #JobSearch2026 #FutureOfWork #WhatAboutAI #CareerAdvice #InterviewTips #SkillsBasedHiring


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    12 mins
  • Wall Street's AI Invasion - What It Means for Your Career
    Feb 16 2026

    Financial services and banking companies are pushing AI further and faster than almost any other industry. In this episode, we draw on our combined decades at Vanguard and JP Morgan Chase to break down exactly what's happening — and what it means for workers at every level.

    What we cover:
    → BNY Mellon's $3.8B tech spend and 134 "digital employees"
    → 20,000 employees building their own AI agents (not just IT)
    → Goldman Sachs embedding AI into KYC and account reconciliation
    → JP Morgan Chase's internal AI training programs
    → How the career ladder is flattening — juniors and middle management squeezed
    → The reversed apprenticeship: seniors now need juniors for tech skills
    → Regulation and compliance disruption: AI knows every law instantly
    → 97% of investors penalizing firms not upskilling on AI
    → Why banks learned from the fintech revolution and jumped ahead
    → The coming wave of AI-driven acquisitions
    → How to build your own thing when the ladder disappears
    → GitHub profiles as the new resume — showing vs. telling

    Key Stats:
    • $3.8B/year BNY Mellon tech spend (19% of revenue, highest among peers)
    • 134 "digital employees" working 24/7 at BNY
    • 20,000 empowered builders creating AI agents
    • 98% of 52,000 BNY employees trained on GenAI
    • Only 2% of financial institutions report no AI usage (Finastra 2026)
    • 89% say AI increased revenue or decreased costs (NVIDIA 2026)
    • 97% of investors penalizing firms not upskilling on AI
    • 42% of U.S. financial firms accelerating AI investment 50%+ (Finastra)
    • 68% of national bankers list AI as top-5 spending priority

    ⬇️ RESOURCES & LINKS ⬇️

    🤖 FREE GUIDE: Financial Services AI Disruption Guide Download: https://whataboutai.com/guides/finserv-ai

    📬 Get Weekly AI Updates Newsletter: https://whataboutai.com/newsletter

    🎙️ Listen on Your Favorite Platform Podcast: https://whataboutai.com/podcast

    💼 AI Consulting for Your Business https://whataboutai.com/business


    TIMESTAMPS
    00:30 - AI stats from the financial services industry
    01:30 - Use cases for AI in finance and banking
    02:30 - The AI advantage when it comes to regulation
    03:00 - How is the industry ‘career ladder’ changing
    04:10 - How to get into a dramatically changing industry
    05:45 - Creative ways to position yourself well
    06:10 - The aqui-hire pattern
    07:20 - The ‘github profile’ example
    08:45 - How financial services is actually leading change
    09:45 - Financial services / fintech history lesson
    11:30 - Where to find help


    AI financial services, banking AI, BNY Mellon AI, digital employees, fintech AI, career in banking, financial services jobs, AI workforce, Goldman Sachs AI, JP Morgan AI, What About AI, AI career advice, compliance AI, regulation AI

    #AIinBanking #FinancialServices #FutureOfWork #WhatAboutAI #AIWorkforce #FinTech #CareerAdvice #DigitalEmployees


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    12 mins
  • We Tested Opus 4.6 vs GPT 5.3 — One of Them Is Scary Good
    Feb 11 2026

    In this episode, we go hands-on with the two biggest AI model releases of 2026 so far — Anthropic's Claude Opus 4.6 and OpenAI's GPT-5.3 Codex — and break down what they mean for workers and businesses.

    What we cover: → Opus 4.6: 1M token context window, agent teams, thinks ahead of you → GPT-5.3 Codex: 25% faster, first model that helped build itself → Our hands-on experience using both for coding, research, and strategy → Why most consumers are sleeping on Claude (and shouldn't be) → A software engineer's take: 4.6 is "more powerful than most senior engineers" → Why companies won't replace workers overnight (but are shifting fast) → Corporate inertia: why individuals can move faster than their companies → How to use AI for strategy and planning — not just task automation → The AGI question: are we one or two versions away?

    Key Stats: • Opus 4.6 outperforms GPT-5.2 by 144 Elo points on GDPval-AA (Anthropic) • GPT-5.3 is 25% faster than its predecessor (OpenAI) • Average enterprise LLM spend hit $7M in 2025, projected $11.6M in 2026 (a16z) • Workers with AI skills earn up to 56% higher wages (PwC) • 20% of organizations will flatten structures with AI by 2026 (Gartner) • 44% of enterprises now use Anthropic in production (a16z survey)

    ⬇️ RESOURCES & LINKS ⬇️

    🤖 FREE GUIDE: AI Model Showdown Guide Download: https://whataboutai.com/guides/ai-model-showdown

    📬 Get Weekly AI Updates Newsletter: https://whataboutai.com/newsletter

    🎙️ Listen on Your Favorite Platform Podcast: https://whataboutai.com/podcast

    💼 AI Consulting for Your Business https://whataboutai.com/business


    TIMESTAMPS
    00:30 - New model updates
    01:00 - Key updates
    01:50 - People don’t know about Claude
    03:30 - When to expect the new ChatGPT (5.3)
    04:50 - Will AI eventually be the boss?
    06:00 - Conversation about AGI
    07:00 - Where should people focus
    07:45 - Augmentation vs replacement
    08:35 - A practical timeline for businesses
    10:00 - Being a change agent with AI
    11:00 - Leverage AI for strategy as well


    Opus 4.6, GPT 5.3, Claude Opus, Anthropic, OpenAI, AI models comparison, Opus vs GPT, AI coding, AI agents, AI workforce, future of work, AGI, agentic AI, Claude vs ChatGPT, AI model review, What About AI, enterprise AI, AI skills, vibe coding

    #Opus46 #GPT53 #AIModels #ClaudeVsChatGPT #AnthropicAI #OpenAI #FutureOfWork #AIWorkforce #AgenticAI #WhatAboutAI


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    12 mins
  • AI Agents Just Replaced Your Coworkers (McKinsey Hired 25,000 of Them)
    Feb 11 2026

    McKinsey now has 25,000 AI agents working alongside 40,000 humans. OpenAI just launched Frontier. Anthropic released Agent Teams. The shift from "AI as a tool" to "AI as your coworker" is happening right now.

    We break down what both platforms can do, share real stats from companies already using them (one cut fulfillment from 6 weeks to 1 day), and give you practical advice on how to position yourself for what's coming.

    ⬇️ RESOURCES & LINKS ⬇️
    🤖 FREE GUIDE: AI Agents Readiness Guide - Download: https://whataboutai.com/guides/ai-agents-readiness
    📬 Get Weekly AI Updates - Newsletter: https://whataboutai.com/newsletter
    🎙️ Listen on Your Favorite Platform - Podcast: https://whataboutai.com/podcast
    💼 AI Consulting for Your Business - https://whataboutai.com/business

    In this episode, we unpack the latest developments in AI agents from Anthropic (Agent Teams) and OpenAI (Frontier) — and what they mean for workers and businesses.

    What we cover: → OpenAI Frontier: enterprise-only platform for building and managing AI agent fleets → Anthropic Agent Teams: hierarchical agent systems that communicate with each other → Real production stats: manufacturing fulfillment cut from 6 weeks to 1 day → Investment firm automating 90%+ of sales team activity → McKinsey now employing 25,000 AI agents (up from 3,000 just 18 months ago) → Why companies are shifting workforce budgets toward agent teams → The implementation gap: why most companies are doing this wrong → How to position yourself and start building AI skills now → Our coaching client who went from zero AI experience to automating his entire home in 2 weeks

    Key Stats:
    • McKinsey: 40,000 humans + 25,000 AI agents (targeting parity by end of 2026)
    • 89% of HR leaders expect AI to reshape jobs in 2026 (CNBC)
    • 20% of organizations will flatten their org structures with AI (Gartner)
    • 39% of workers' core skills expected to change by 2030 (WEF)
    • Workers with AI skills earn up to 56% higher wages (PwC)


    TIMESTAMPS
    00:56 - Results from usage of agents
    02:15 - How companies are using agents
    03:00 - How Anthropic agent teams work
    04:05 - What’s unique about agent teams
    05:00 - Agents working similar to people teams
    06:00 - How companies are leveraging agents
    06:30 - How workers will interact with agents
    08:00 - Companies hiring agents instead
    09:00 - Mistakes companies are making
    10:00 - Knowing the limitations of agents
    11:20 - What to expect coming next
    12:30 - What companies will need from you
    13:30 - User applications of agent teams


    AI agents, AI workforce, OpenAI Frontier, Anthropic Agent Teams, AI coworkers, AI replacing jobs, McKinsey AI agents, AI at work, future of work, AI agent teams, agentic AI, enterprise AI, AI automation, AI job displacement, AI skills, What About AI, career protection AI, workforce transformation

    #AIAgents #FutureOfWork #AIWorkforce #OpenAIFrontier #AnthropicAI #AICoworkers #AgenticAI #AIJobs #CareerProtection #WhatAboutAI


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    15 mins