Remember your first job? How excited we were to get our first paycheck? I was hired at a driving range and rode in a wire cage truck, scooping up balls while golfers tried to hit me!

I cashed that first paycheck into $1 bills and framed the crispest one so I could stare at it from my bed. That set my life in motion for the rest of my career….work hard and get rewarded.

Today there are very few people between 16-24 working….less than 1% of our workforce. In fact most of the minimum wage jobs are filled by people over 25. Worse yet, 44% of our workforce do not make a livable wage and are unable to provide housing and food for their families.

What is driving these changes? AI Robots. Such a great idea….but is it really? Who actually benefits from this new concept? Will it help the average family or corporate billionaires?

Businesses have determined that they don’t need or want employees anymore. McDonalds installed kiosks as a quicker option to place your order, but now it’s your only choice with few employees even visible up front.

Amazon is cutting 30,000 corporate jobs right now and will avoid hiring almost 200,000 people in the next year or two as they embrace AI Robotization.

This is going to drive more people into poverty creating a higher need for government funding for food, medical care and housing. How will people who are struggling now, take care of their families in a year or two?

I immediately think about what happened to Detroit, the Motor City, when auto manufactures figured out how to bust the unions apart. In the 70’s, the racial riots and fights with the unions, caused the auto manufactures to move into other states and countries and the move towards automation began. Detroit died and even with significant gentrification efforts, it is still a shell of deserted foundations and empty lots where the neighborhoods were once filled with hard working families and kids riding their bikes.

Within the next 5 years there will be very few entry level jobs and over half of white color jobs will be eliminated as well. Fully adopting artificial intelligence could save corporate America $920 billion annually, new Morgan Stanley data finds. These cost savings will come from the individual employees pockets, while making billionaires even more wealthy.

The move towards AI robots, will impact the US workforce more than anytime in history. How do we plan for these inevitable changes and allow the entry level employee to feel the excitement and opportunity that I felt 50+ years ago?

Our educational leaders need to embrace these changes and throw away their traditional education models and move towards AI supported jobs. STEM driven programs are the only solution for our schools and students, starting from kindergarten on.

Is anyone else worried that AI will create more division between working class families and corporate greed?