Sam Altman said artificial intelligence has not triggered the large-scale white-collar job losses he once feared, marking a notable shift from earlier warnings about AI-driven disruption.
Speaking virtually during a conference hosted by Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney, Altman said he had expected AI to eliminate more entry-level office jobs by now following the launch of ChatGPT in 2022.
“I’m delighted to be wrong about this,” Altman said. “I thought there would have been more impact on entry-level white-collar jobs being eliminated by now than has actually happened.”
Altman Says Early Predictions Missed Human Behavior
Altman said OpenAI’s leadership had been “roughly right” about the pace of AI technological progress but had misjudged the broader social and economic effects.
According to Altman, researchers underestimated how much people still value direct human interaction even when AI systems can technically perform many workplace tasks.
He described experimenting with AI-generated responses for Slack and email communication before deciding to handle certain conversations personally again.
“We really do care about our interactions with people,” Altman said. “This thing, which is a huge amount of my time, is not something that I can imagine myself outsourcing to an AI anytime soon.”
The experience, he said, changed his assumptions about how quickly AI would replace human labor across professional industries.
AI Job Fears Continue Across Industries
Altman’s comments arrive as companies across banking, technology, and consulting continue restructuring around AI systems.
Firms including Meta, Oracle, Standard Chartered, and Cisco have all recently acknowledged that some jobs are being automated or reshaped through AI adoption.
At the same time, executives across the technology sector continue debating how quickly AI agents and automation tools could transform the labor market.
Altman said he no longer believes the industry is heading toward a near-term “jobs apocalypse,” despite continuing advances in generative AI capabilities.
“I don’t think we’re going to have the kind of jobs apocalypse that some of the companies in our space advocate or talk about,” he said.
OpenAI Pushes Toward IPO Amid AI Expansion
The remarks come as OpenAI prepares for a possible public market debut.
The company is reportedly preparing confidential IPO filings and could pursue a valuation approaching $1 trillion, according to recent reports.
OpenAI remains one of the central companies driving the global AI boom after launching ChatGPT, while also facing increasing competition from rivals including Anthropic, Google, and Meta.
Altman’s latest comments suggest that even some of the industry’s leading AI executives are revising their expectations about how rapidly automation will reshape the workforce.
