OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman says the coming decade will redefine not only which jobs exist but what a career means, and that the change will be disruptive before it is rewarding. In interview remarks reported by Fortune and other outlets, Altman said students graduating around 2035 may never enter the job market as it exists today.
Careers in industries that barely exist
Speaking on Cleo Abram’s Huge If True podcast, Altman suggested that graduates a decade from now could find themselves working in fields that are marginal or nonexistent today, including space exploration and other frontier technologies, at pay levels well above current norms. He described a scenario in which young professionals take part in missions to explore the solar system rather than applying for conventional office roles.
In Altman’s telling, that becomes possible only once AI systems take over most of the routine knowledge work that occupies people now. The argument is a familiar one from technology executives: automation removes the lower rungs of the ladder and the economy builds new ones higher up.
A painful transition first
Altman paired the optimistic picture with a warning. He said the shift will not be smooth, and that the promise of better and more interesting careers cannot be realized until labor markets pass through a difficult period. Entry-level positions built on repetitive or predictable tasks, he said, are likely to disappear before replacements emerge.
That view aligns with concerns raised by economists and by some of Altman’s peers. Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei said in 2025 that AI could eliminate a large share of entry-level white-collar jobs within a few years, and several studies during 2025 reported weaker hiring for recent graduates in fields most exposed to AI tools. The causes of those hiring trends remain contested, and Altman’s remarks are a forecast rather than evidence.
Envy for Gen Z
Altman said he envies people in Generation Z who are starting their careers at the beginning of the transition, arguing they will be better placed to adapt, experiment and build on new tools than older workers. He joked that future generations may pity today’s professionals for the comparatively dull work they had to do.
Replacing the CEO
In a separate conversation, Altman has said he expects AI eventually to be capable of running a company, including his own, and that he would consider it a failure if OpenAI were not among the first large companies to be led at a senior level by AI. He has said he regularly thinks about how good a system would need to be to lead an organization better than a human, and that the moment could arrive sooner than most people expect.
Those comments should be read in context. Altman runs the company whose products he is describing, and OpenAI’s commercial case depends on the belief that its systems will become capable enough to take over substantial work. His predictions about jobs have also shifted over time; in earlier interviews he emphasized that AI would change jobs rather than eliminate them.
Taken together, the remarks lay out a consistent position: AI will first unsettle existing structures and remove many current jobs, and only afterward produce new economic arrangements. On Altman’s own account, the attractive careers and high salaries he envisions will not arrive automatically. They depend on how societies, companies and individuals handle a transition in which new skills become the main asset.
