Sobering Reports
The managing director of the International Monetary Fund described it as the impending job tsunami and put some numbers to the problem: sixty percent of jobs in advanced economies will be affected, forty percent globally, with entry-level roles disappearing first, and the middle of the workforce squeezed hardest. Dario Amodei, the chief executive of Anthropic, has publicly warned about the disappearance of entry-level white-collar work. Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical of his pontificate focused on safeguarding the human person in the age of artificial intelligence. Politicians everywhere are asking for everything from pauses and slowdowns to regulatory guardrails. The World Bank projects that roughly 1.2 billion young people in emerging and developing economies will reach working age between now and the mid 2030s, and only 400 million jobs will be created on current trajectories.

A future without work is looking more real with each passing day. We’re sure you all know young workers or worker wannabes that are living living in their parent’s homes indefinitely, searching for gainful employment.

AI-Proofing Jobs

In our house we joke that if our kids were heading off to college now we’d instead send them to plumbing or electrician school—tactile trades in high demand. Galtung believes that some jobs can remain AI-proof as we muscle through this tectonic shift. Where does he see potential? For one, the experience economy, whether it’s conferences, concerts, events, or immersive environments. All of these are gaining momentum as people seek human connection. He is also bullish on tourism and its adjacencies, which are primed for job growth because robots would have a tough time besting humans. Gathering is still innately human,  and gathering in all its permutations can create a new category of job growth. While Gatlung acknowledges that taxes on machines, reskilling of humans, and other solutions will need to be called into play, he’s committed to the ideal that new job creation is what is most needed. Read his co-authored essay and follow along with the alarming facts about AI and the job market. Let’s not play ostrich, OK?

MediaClaw
PR folks who need to wrap their heads around the AI/PR game need to check out MediaClaw, which was designed by Michael Terpin, a long-time friend of VEG and a masterful PR and marketing person. Mediaclaw is an agentic AI that will crawl the web on your behalf, retrieving information about your competition and your PR coverage. It’ll clip and provide analytics, and handle compliance, but most important, it will identify the markets where your press outreach belongs.

Muse
Meta’s new AI assistant, Muse, is worth taking a look at, for both good and bad reasons. There are plenty of AI personal assistants out there, but since its recent launch Meta’s Muse is garnering steam with its promise to do your bidding, for free, even when you’re not at your device. It can act as your personal assistant, your holiday shopper, your travel booker, your accountant, and more. 

But sheesh, if you’ve been around the block you know the Meta game plan. They learn about you and then sic their advertisers on you. Before you have any inkling about what Muse can do for you, you’ll need to give them data aplenty, like access to your email and calendar for starters. Sure, others do the same, but usually with a little bit of a tutorial or explanation. Initial reviews are fairly positive, but we all know how ‘free’ can cost us dearly.

Heading to NAB Show New York? We want to hear from you, and we especially want you to look at our good friends from B&H and how they’re working with creators and their clients to make sure people understand how to use (not just choose) their best tech. 

Eccho Live, a group devoted to helping touring and event professionals maintain their sanity (and their bank accounts), will be holding their Evolve event at Rock Nashville this November. For those of you who’ve dreamt of being “almost famous,” you should be watching this one for added insight into a career on the road.