The AI Economist: The Skill You Need to Stay Employed in the Age of AI

In this episode of I’ve Got Questions, I sit down with leading AI economist, professor and author Ajay Agrawal to unpack whether AI is truly overhyped or if we’re fundamentally underestimating its long-term impact on the economy.

We explore the historic parallels between AI and past pivotal moments in history, the risk of a bubble bursting in this economy and what it means for the future of work.

We dive into how generative AI is already reshaping the labor market and how we can expect our jobs to evolve. We explore the impact of AI on new college graduates and how education institutions must adapt to prepare people for jobs that don’t look anything like the ones we know today. And Ajay shares the single most important skill to thrive in the future of work.

0:00 – Introduction
2:04 – Is AI Overhyped or Misunderstood?
3:39 – What Electricity Can Teach Us About AI’s Slow Start
6:22 – How Small Tweaks Triggered 500% Productivity Gains
10:25 – The Next “Amazons” Will Be AI-First Companies—But Who Wins?
13:24 – Are We Building a Data Center Bubble?
16:06 – What Happens If the “Magnificent Seven” Crash?
18:00 – Why Today’s AI Could Already Reshape Every Industry
20:12 – The Truth About Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)
23:00 – Why Entry-Level Jobs Are Disappearing First
27:05 – The #1 Skill Machines Can’t Replace
34:00 – Education’s Shift from Reading to Doing
39:01 – Rethinking the Knowledge Economy in the AI Age
43:00 – The Real Division of Labor Breakdown
47:05 – How AI Will Collapse Workflows and Redesign Industries
50:15 – What Happens To Professions on the Brink of Reinvention
52:30 – Will AI Create a Fairer Job Market or Widen the Gap?