2025 was not the year labor economists hoped for. Last year was the worst year of non-recession job growth since 2003. Tariffs, tighter immigration, and economic uncertainty have all played a role—and artificial intelligence has become an easy scapegoat. But Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang doesn’t see AI as the villain behind today’s job market woes.
Instead, he views the current slowdown as a period of adjustment—growing pains before a more productive and ultimately more prosperous economy takes shape.
“Our job is not to wrangle a spreadsheet or type into a keyboard—our job is generally more meaningful than that,” Huang told TIME. “I’m fairly confident that AI will drive productivity, revenue growth, and therefore more hiring.”
But his optimism comes with a caveat: the transition won’t be seamless. The rise of AI will force a broad reshuffling of roles and responsibilities across the job market, demanding new skills and adaptability from workers.
“This is for certain: everyone’s job will change because of AI. Some jobs will disappear—every industrial revolution some jobs are just gone—but a whole bunch of jobs are created,” the 62-year-old said.
And there’s an even bigger catch. In order to be part of this transformation, AI must be embraced; otherwise, the consequences could be stark.
“Everyone will have to use AI, because if you don’t, you’ll lose your job to someone who does.”
Nvidia declined Fortune’s request for comment.
2026 might not be any better for job seekers—but here’s how to stand out
Huang is not alone seeing long-term opportunity amid short-term turbulence. AMD CEO Lisa Su has also struck an optimistic tone—particularly for students entering the workforce just as AI shapes how work gets done.
“The Class of 2026 will be graduating at an exciting time, as AI transforms our world and expands what is possible,” she said in a statement announcing her as MIT’s 2026 commencement speaker. “And I look forward to celebrating them as they prepare to share their skills and ideas with the world.”
However, after a sluggish 2025, there’s little evidence that 2026 will offer immediate relief for job seekers—especially if tariff policy and other economic headwinds remain unchanged. For soon-to-be graduates, the outlook is particularly grim.
More than half of employers rate the job market for the Class of 2026 as “poor” or “fair,” according to a survey from the National Association of Colleges and Employers—the most pessimistic outlook since the early days of the pandemic.
This is playing out in real time as young people are battling for a shrinking number of entry-level roles. At Bank of America, for example, just 2,000 recent graduates were hired from a pool of 200,000 applicants—an acceptance rate of about 1%, far more selective than Ivy League schools.
The bank’s CEO, Brian Moynihan, acknowledged that anxiety is widespread among Gen Z job seekers, but urged them not to retreat from it.
“If you ask them if they’re scared, they say they are. And I understand that. But I say, harness it … It’ll be your world ahead of you,” Moynihan told CBS News earlier this year.
Huang has echoed that message, arguing that resilience—not entitlement—will be the defining trait of workers who succeed in an AI-driven economy.
“People with very high expectations have very low resilience—and unfortunately, resilience matters in success,” Huang said during an interview with the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 2024. “One of my great advantages is that I have very low expectations.”
Overcoming adversity, Huang said, is a rite of passage for successful people.
“I don’t know how to do it [but] for all of you Stanford students, I wish upon you ample doses of pain and suffering,” Huang added. “Greatness comes from character and character isn’t formed out of smart people—it’s formed out of people who suffered.”
