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The $100 trillion power shift

3 19
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The Fast Company Impact Council is an invitation-only membership community of leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual dues for access to peer learning, thought leadership opportunities, events and more.

The world is at an inflection point unlike any before. AI isn’t just a tool—it’s a tidal wave, rewriting the rules of power, wealth, and survival.

The corporate dream is in flux. The systems we were taught to trust—college degrees, career ladders, the safe path to success—are morphing in real time. AI is detonating industries, stripping white collar jobs down to algorithms, while the value of human labor is being rewritten before our eyes. The workers we once ignored—the welders, the electricians, the builders—are skyrocketing in demand.

This is not a prediction. It’s happening now.

AI is both an unprecedented tool of creation and a force of destruction, reshaping economies, governments, and labor forces at breakneck speed. According to Peng Xiao, CEO of G42, “AI is the defining technology of our era—an essential utility that will reshape economies and societies, much like electricity did in the past.”

AI is recalibrating industries at an unimaginable pace. Meanwhile, the jobs AI can’t touch—construction workers, electricians, welders, mechanics—are becoming more valuable than ever.

In 2019, an MBA from an elite school was the equivalent of winning the professional lottery. Today? AI-powered algorithms run finance, operations, and consulting—faster, cheaper, and without a 401(k).

Companies like OpenAI, DeepMind, and Anthropic have unleashed AI models that make traditional knowledge workers obsolete. Banks are automating the work of........

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