A news that shocked the economic world is read differently: It is no longer the job of your employers to force you to evolve

Block, one of the successful companies of the technology world, announced that it is laying off 4,000 people, but not because it is doing badly, but because it is doing well. “Welcome to the world of AI-preneurship” says Dragoș Stanca, president of BRAT, founder of Upgrade 100 and Managing Partner of THINKDIGITAL. The entrepreneur publishes, in HotNews, a point of view on the event of the day.

Today is the day when many speakers at tech events will delete from their presentations that tired slide with “AI will not take your place, but another colleague who knows AI better”, followed by “AI will create new jobs”.

I don't (really) believe that. And today's news announcing the layoff of 4,000 people (that's almost half of the employees) by Jack Dorsey's company (Block), followed by a 25% increase in the stock, seems to confirm this.

A movement that takes people out of their comfort zone

Those people (some of them super-qualified, others of the well-known breed of corporate swindler, who was no longer doing anything useful anyway) do not leave empty-handed.

They will receive 20 weeks salary + one week for each year of service, stock, 6 months medical insurance, service devices and $5,000.

And they leave with something else: with the fear that will force them to leave their comfort zone. An awakening to the (new) reality that will be useful to many, in the long term.

Some money for a new start + fear are two important ingredients that can force you to become an entrepreneur even if you weren't sure you wanted it (I speak from experience here, because that's exactly what happened to me, after the crisis of 2008-2009).

Looking back: best thing that happened to me.

AI will foster a new kind of economy and company

Coming back: I think, then, that the explosion of AI will generate a completely different type of companies, of the solopreneurship type: small groups equipped with AI agents that will be able to associate quickly, thus reaching the execution force of some corporations, but with the agility and costs of some startups.

AI will therefore generate a new type of economy and company, not “new jobs” in the classical sense.

Corporate intrapreneurship is the core from which other types of businesses will explode. Small, agile, but hyper-performing.

What will corporations do?

The giants of the corporate world will have increasing knee joint pain under the pressure of their own weight and the concerted attack of small competitors, and some of them will collapse, spectacularly. Employees and even some customers hated them anyway.

Others will remain standing. Maybe because they are already too strong or maybe they will get help. Too big to fail?

We will, in this context, have new operating systems (probably blockchains + Ai) that allow maximum agility and efficiency for these new entrepreneurial movements equipped with AI. And people and companies will learn what efficiency means from the working style of Clawdbot agents.

It's no longer up to your employers to force you to evolve

The most competitive and ambitious people will enter this human-technology race. The others will resist the change (until they find that resistance is futile) or settle for a guaranteed minimum income: a pension that will come earlier and earlier in life.

Here again, Romania will prove to be a visionary country, with its pensioners only 40 years old!

I end with a friendly tip: get out of your comfort zone and learn AI as fast as possible.

It is no longer the business of your employers to force you to evolve, to invest in trainings, etc. It is the personal decision of each of you. Replace or be replaced!

Exploit yourself!

Information is plentiful (and I don't mean the little gurus who are just looking to steal some views through social media).

The good news (semi-jokingly) is that if you take this step, it won't just be the evil, greedy bosses (or worse, their AI equivalent) who exploit you: you'll exploit yourself.

Welcome to the world of AI-preneurship!

The article was originally published on Substack by the author.