Nvidia CEO says AI job destruction fears are 'exactly backward'

Jensen Huang pushed back on warnings that artificial intelligence will eliminate white-collar jobs, telling an audience at Y Combinator's Startup School that the narrative is "exactly backward."

The Nvidia chief executive drew a line between tasks and jobs. Tasks like making phone calls or processing customer complaints will be automated, he said. But jobs, which bundle multiple tasks around a purpose, will not disappear.

"Every single job will change, and there will be a whole bunch of new jobs," Huang said. "The narrative of AI destroying jobs is exactly backward."

Huang offered examples. Customer service workers have already felt the disruption. Uber laid off 10% of its customer service staff last week, citing the technology. But Huang argued that the job itself survives even as specific tasks vanish.

Radiology is another case. The task of reading scans has been automated by AI tools that are powerful and widely used. Yet radiology jobs are still growing, Huang said.

"The reason for that is the backlog of patients is incredibly high," he said. "Now, doctors and hospitals can admit a lot more patients."

Software engineering faces a similar dynamic. Many coders have shifted from writing code to advising AI code editors like Claude Code and Codex. The coding itself is the task being automated, Huang said. Software jobs, however, are on the rise.

"The backlog of ideas, the backlog of ambition and aspiration, is so high," Huang said. "If we can automate away the task of programming, we could hire more software engineers to do more things."

Huang name-checked the legal startup Harvey. Some worried that AI would eliminate paralegal roles. Instead, the role is growing "like crazy," he said. The Bureau of Labor Statistics expects the occupation to see "little or no change" between 2024 and 2034.

That vision of the labor market differs from the one Dario Amodei laid out. In 2025, the Anthropic CEO predicted AI could eliminate 50% of entry-level white-collar jobs. He has since softened his stance, saying AI will boost productivity, though he still believes job loss could be "intrinsic" to the technology.

Huang agreed that workers will get better and faster. He said that productivity gains tend to increase employment rather than shrink it.

"This is a classic example of productivity increasing growth," Huang said. "Increasing growth drives more employment."

Nvidia shares fell 4.99% to $196.51 on the day, with an Alpha Score of 71 out of 100, indicating a moderate outlook. The company's NVIDIA profile provides additional context on its business and market position.