Micha Kaufman, CEO of freelance marketplace Fiverr, said he won't hire anyone who isn't already using AI. He said even candidates who say they're willing to try AI but haven't actually used it would be a red flag.
Micha Kaufman, CEO of freelance marketplace Fiverr, said he won't hire anyone who isn't already using AI. He said even candidates who say they're willing to try AI but haven't actually used it would be a red flag.
"You can't wait to be taught something. If you don't take care of sharpening your knives, you'll get left behind. It's that simple," Kaufman told Business Insider.
In his opinion, people who use AI to improve their work, not just automate it, will stand out in today's job market. The real competition is not the technology itself, he added, but the people who adopt it.
"There's less risk that technology will displace people," he told BI in an interview. "But I think there's more risk that people who are good at technology will displace people who are not."
Kaufman also expressed this position in a memo to 775 Fiverr employees last month, warning that artificial intelligence could threaten jobs at all levels.
“AI is coming for your jobs. Heck, it’s coming for mine too. This is a wake-up call,” he wrote. “It doesn’t matter if you’re a programmer, a designer, a product manager, a data analyst, a lawyer, a support representative, a salesperson, or a financier — AI is coming for you.”
Kaufman told BI that the memo is not about creating fear, but about confronting reality. “If you don’t take this step, you will be out of a job,” he explained. “Not just in our company, but in the entire industry. There will be no demand for people who work the way they did five years ago.”
The Fiverr CEO added that people who find ways to replace 100% of what they do now with technology will never be displaced or replaced. He says he would never replace an employee or freelancer with that mindset — “because it just frees up their time to focus on things that technology can’t currently provide.”
Kaufman explained that workers who use artificial intelligence have less technical skill than "curiosity, adaptability, and a willingness to experiment."
“I want my people to focus on these more complex, specifically human tasks, and not continue to work as if it’s 2024,” he added. “If you’re still doing this, you’re doing something wrong.”
According to Kaufman, freelancers are often better prepared for the fact that artificial intelligence will turn the labor market upside down because they are constantly upgrading their skills.
Many companies have already announced that they are reducing their hiring. Duolingo will gradually stop using contractors to do work that AI can handle. Salesforce CEO said he has no plans to hire more engineers because AI is doing a great job. Shopify CEO says that before asking for more staff, teams should explain why they couldn’t achieve results with AI.
At the same time, there are also known stories of the opposite. For example, the Swedish fintech company Klarna is bringing back real support operators because excessive reliance on artificial intelligence has reduced the quality of service.
Саме так. ШІ - це ще один інструмент.