AI’s Workforce Reckoning: “The Disruption in People’s Lives Is Going to Be Real”

At Leadership Now’s 2026 Summit, executives and technologists debated whether America is prepared for the scale and speed of the AI transition already underway.

At Leadership Now’s recent convening, technology executives, investors, and policy leaders delivered a sobering message about AI: disruption to American workers is no longer theoretical. It’s happening now, and the question is how business and government can manage it responsibly.

Moderated by Leadership Now member and Warren Valdmanis, the panel conversation brought together Chief AI Scientist Jonathan Frankle, Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz, Founder and Managing Partner of Inspired Capital, Alexa von Tobel, and Senior Vice President from Business Roundtable Dane Linn to grapple with the question of how to ensure economic opportunity for workers amid the AI transition.

“We heard from Senator Slotkin about how workers got the ass-end of offshoring and globalization,” Valdmanis said at the start of the session. “What we’re going to talk about for the next 45 minutes is how we can prevent that from happening in the age of AI.”

The panelists agreed that AI will drive a historic transformation, though they expressed disagreement over how quickly it will unfold. Frankle cautioned against simplistic predictions that AI will either replace all workers or amount to little more than hype. 

“There’s a lot in the middle,” Frankle said. “This may end up taking a really long time. This may end up being really transformative and really dangerous in the short term.”

Novogratz, however, argued that the pace of disruption is speeding up inside corporate America.

“I think it’s going to happen at a far more accelerating rate than people think,” he said. “The disruption in their lives is going to be real.”

He described a profound shift underway in executive thinking following recent advances in generative AI.

“Every CEO I knew had the same insight,” Novogratz said. “‘We can’t just have AI enhance employees’ productivity. We need to think of agents as employees.’”

Throughout the discussion, the need for workforce retraining emerged as a central theme. Linn argued the challenge is not simply about replacing workers, but helping millions of existing employees adapt quickly to changing skill demands.

“How do we help those individuals develop the skills?” Linn asked. “How do we help those individuals demonstrate the acquisition of some of these AI-related skills?”

The discussion repeatedly returned to a broader competitiveness concern: whether the United States is prepared to lead globally in AI infrastructure, talent, and policy.

While AI promises enormous productivity gains, by the close of the session it was clear that the experts onstage believe the economic and political consequences of mishandling the transition could be just as significant as the changes brought about by the technology itself.