Merryn Somerset Webb

That's happening.

And you write about that in this paper as well, about hollowing out of white collar professions.

So it looks like we are already taking the wrong path here.

And that we should have just as many junior lawyers, accountants, doctors, customer services people, whatever it is.

We should have as many as we had before for the knowledge building.

This is why everyone has a bias towards older pilots, right?

I don't know about you, but when I got on an airplane and I see that the pilots are maybe over 45 or better still over 50, I'm thrilled.

Absolutely thrilled.

Because I know that it means that they've got a strong base of knowledge to actually fly a plane because they probably had to do it for a good while without autopilot before now.

Yeah, tough sell to people trying to cut costs.

And a tough sell in the world where, let's say you're the company who says, I have to preserve this and I'm going to keep hiring and we're going to learn this properly and then we'll use AI later.

And your competitors are saying, sod that, we're going to fire everybody down to the bottom.

We're certainly not higher anymore and our costs will be lower and our margins will be higher.

And as you say, that's going to be a bit like a sugar rush, right?

That'll work for a certain period and then it won't work anymore.

But that transition period of learning...

how we work with AI is going to be tricky for a lot of people, a lot of companies.

OK, so let's think about what we can do both as individuals and as companies.

If you are a young person entering the workforce today, what do you need to do?

What are the skills you need to acquire and how do you need to look at your employment?