Robinhood CEO: AI to create a 'job singularity'…accelerating a shift toward a worker-centric labor market

Vlad Tenev, chief executive officer (CEO) of Robinhood, forecast that artificial intelligence (AI) will not only replace jobs but also trigger a “job singularity,” in which it creates a large number of new roles and industries.

According to Decrypt on the 15th (local time), Tenev said in a recent TED talk that AI will provide individuals with capabilities previously enjoyed only by large corporations, reshaping the structure of the labor market itself. “We are on a curve where job creation is accelerating rapidly,” he said, likening it to the “Cambrian explosion.”

“If the internet provided global reach, AI provides individuals with a world-class staff,” Tenev said. As AI takes on roles across engineering, marketing, research, operations and customer support, he explained, conditions are forming in which individuals can run businesses without large organizations.

He added that these shifts increase the likelihood of the emergence of micro businesses, one-person organizations and one-person unicorn companies. “A unicorn company run by a single individual will soon become reality,” Tenev said.

Tenev’s remarks also align with research findings. A study by the MIT Sloan School of Management in October 2025 found that companies adopting AI tended to grow faster and also increase hiring. The World Economic Forum (WEF) estimated in a January 2025 report that the spread of AI would create about 170 million new jobs.

Still, labor-market anxiety persists. A Pew Research Center survey in February 2025 found that more than half of U.S. workers are concerned about AI’s impact in the workplace, and about one-third said jobs would decline over the long term.

Tenev said that the disappearance and creation of jobs with technological advances is a phenomenon that has repeated throughout history. “Many occupations—hunting, agriculture, blacksmithing, factory work—disappeared alongside automation, but humanity has always created new roles,” he said.

While noting that “the speed of change is much faster than in the past, which is fueling anxiety,” Tenev stressed that “humanity has always found meaning and purpose even in uncertain times,” adding that the AI era will likewise mark a new phase of creation.