Wharton's Mollick says trade work won't shield workers from AI

On November 2, 2026, IT之家 reported on Business Insider coverage of remarks by Ethan Mollick, a management professor at the Wharton School, during a podcast interview. Mollick spoke with Peter Kafka on Kafka's podcast Channels about the impact of AI on work, career choices for the next generation, and what happens to traditional talent development systems as AI upends them.

Mollick presents his views in a new book, Co-Existence. His central argument is that large language models are improving far faster than most people appreciate, and that the only way to cope with this pace is to learn to coexist with them. He rejects two common answers to the question of how to make a living in the AI era. One is simply learning to use AI; the other is choosing a profession, ideally a hands-on one, that AI cannot automate or replace. In his view, neither strategy is sufficient.

Mollick argues that many skills people currently possess will keep declining in value over time. Instead, he urges people to focus on cultivating personal qualities and core capabilities that AI cannot replicate. The reported remarks come from an edited excerpt of the interview.