AI is helping businesses make massive productivity and financial gains, but are the potential long-term consequences worth it?
By Gia Miller
Design by Justin Negard
Jackie Schwabe began her professional career at 18 years old, working various roles in the technology space over the past 30 years. She’s worked with healthcare organizations and families navigating complex care situations, owned several businesses and moved into the AI space as it began to grow. Today, her business, The Finisher Practice, is designed to “finish the unfinished projects that other consultants, developers, AI enthusiasts or experts said they were going to do but left before they completed them,” she explains. It’s a concept that’s kept her very busy, and it’s a business that she formed because, ironically, she was replaced by AI.
“I was the head of operations and VP of product development and technology, and I automated myself out of a job,” Schwabe laughs. The owner always said he wanted to be the next billion-dollar solopreneur, but he told me repeatedly that I would be the last employee he let go. We regularly tracked productivity metrics, and I was 168 times more productive than any other member of our team. But I was one of the first three people he let go.” Schwabe was the most expensive employee and believes the owner thought he could replace her with the technology she built. Now, five months later, she’s incredibly busy finishing other people’s incomplete tech and AI projects while her former employer has reduced his staff by half and appears to be struggling to maintain clients. “He’s trying to accomplish his vision, but he’s facing some challenges,” she says.
Schwabe could pivot quickly thanks to her decades of experience and professional contacts, but younger employees aren’t as lucky. They’re struggling to find meaningful work and applying to hundreds of jobs, hoping that one will turn into an interview, and if they’re lucky, an actual job.
On the other side, businesses, like Schwabe’s former employer, are cutting costs at a steep price. Even if AI can swiftly create initial drafts, perform basic research and successfully manage a calendar, there’s still plenty of work that requires an actual human. Now, this work is being distributed among the remaining employees, who find that even with AI, their workload has increased while their salary remains the same.
While these problems are well-reported, it raises two questions. One: How will young professionals learn the skills they need to advance if companies no longer hire them to perform entry-level work? Two: If businesses don’t hire and train entry-level employees, who will become their mid-level managers and future executives? Aren’t businesses being shortsighted by not hiring and training tomorrow’s workforce?
In other words, is AI quietly dismantling the entire foundation of the modern business world? If so, how do we solve this problem before it’s too late?
The entry-level conundrum
Entry-level tasks like analyzing legal documents, building financial spreadsheets or conducting competitor audits may seem tedious, but these tasks aren’t there to punish; they’re there to teach young professionals how to recognize errors, interpret information and learn how a business operates. Without that experience, and the embarrassing mistakes that come with it, how will they develop the judgement needed to lead?
“It’s a true dilemma,” says Kathy D’Agostino, founder of Win at Business.AI in White Plains. “Previously, you would learn the industry and get mentored, which is so valuable. But there’s another problem here. I’ve worked with a lot of companies and recruiters, and they say the younger generation is very different. They don’t want to be dictated to, do the grunt work or go to an office. They don’t want to be trained, mentored or ever work overtime.”
Schwabe chooses a more optimistic approach, seeing their preference for work-life balance more positively. “They would much rather work a regular eight-to-five that allows them to enjoy life,” she says. “We should not make an entire generation of people feel bad for choosing to spend more of their time on leisure activities. That’s unfair.”
Still, both acknowledge that remote work can be limiting. Young employees may miss the chance to observe how senior colleagues handle clients, on-the-spot mentoring opportunities or possibly get pulled into projects that could change their entire trajectory.
“They’re missing those conversations,” says D’Agostino. “They’re not running into someone who says, ‘Hey, I have this little project. Would you like to come with me, and I’ll show it to you?”
Today, when young professionals can’t find their “dream job,” many are advised to start their own business. But how will they succeed without much, or sometimes any, real work experience? A May 2026 report from the Kaufman Early-Stage Entrepreneurship (KESE) Index says that out of all the businesses launched in 2024, more than 22 percent closed within their first year, and according to VantaInsights, only 45 percent of businesses survive the first five years. “Starting your own business is incredibly difficult,” says Schwabe. “Even if you have worked enough, it’s unlikely that your business will succeed.”
The broken corporate ladder
Switching to business concerns, our experts say this short-sighted approach is not actually new; many companies have operated with a broken or nonexistent ladder for years. “When a company needs to boost profits or cut costs, they look at their expenses,” says Schwabe. “The easy solution has always been to cut people.”
That immediate gratification, focusing on lower headcount and higher ROI, rarely considers the big picture and the structural damage it does to the organization. “Even before AI, companies didn’t have succession plans,” says D’Agostino. “I’ve seen it so many times. Some of these problems are human problems, but AI exposes them and makes them far more visible.”
Even if removing a rung or two from that ladder is a shortsighted tradition for businesses, replacing those rungs with AI creates entirely new concerns. When something goes wrong, especially with AI, who will be there to fix it? D’Agostino recently saw this happen when a business fired a key employee. and everything began to fall apart. “They underestimated her role,” D’Agostino explains.
Both experts believe AI is neither collapsing nor building businesses. “I think companies that were on thin ice are probably on even thinner ice with AI,” D’Agostino says. “AI is exposing all of their flaws.”
How to land a job
The experts’ advice for college students and young professionals is straightforward: Learn AI; master the tool that’s replacing you. “It might seem counterintuitive, but someone who learns AI and figures out how AI could or couldn’t integrate with whatever their specialty is will replace the people who don’t, and that’s across the board—entry level all the way up to the very top,” Schwabe explains. “If you’re running away from it, the guy who embraced it will get the job. There are tons of free training programs created by AI companies.” Here are several recommendations:
Anthropic Academy: The makers of Claude offer courses that teach how to use AI safely in the workplace.
DeepLearning.Ai: Free and paid courses covering a wide range of topics, from prompt engineering to building multimodal data pipelines.
Elements of AI: Developed by the University of Helinski, the course is for nontechnical learners.
Grow with Google: Introductory courses for everyday use, educators, students and small-business owners.
HuggingFace: More technical (understanding how to code in Python is recommended), but great for learners who want a deeper dive.
Microsoft Learn: The basics and platform-specific training for Azure.
If you know the basics, consider asking AI to teach you a specific skill or create a customized course. Schwabe recommends you write a detailed prompt. Here’s an example: Act as an expert growth marketer and lead generation strategist. Teach me how to build a practical, deep understanding of modern lead generation strategies from the ground up.
Then, add your skill level, specific industry and preferred learning style.
It’s worth repeating: Learning AI is imperative to your success. “I recently spoke to a group of young professionals who asked me why they needed AI because they have TikTok and Instagram,” says D’Agostino. “They think they’re digital natives, but many don’t understand that AI doesn’t work the same way. Platforms and games are very predictable, but AI is messy. Sometimes you get a good answer, and sometimes you don’t. You have to learn how to use it well.”
Next, consider in-person internships (and an income-generating side job). Rather than simply getting coffee and making photocopies, observe how senior employees work, identify their challenges and use AI to research potential solutions. Those insights could help you earn a full-time position—or strengthen your next job application. “When you go on job interviews, share what you’ve learned using AI,” D’Agostino recommends. “Tell them you understand what the job requires, and show them what you can bring to the table and what something could look like with AI’s help.” Demonstrate how you would use AI to increase revenue, save time or organize messy data. The goal is to prove that your curiosity and adaptability make you an asset, not a training expense.
Rethinking business growth
Schwabe sees two ways businesses can improve profitability: follow precedent and spend less, often by reducing headcount, or consider ways to generate more revenue. “Both solve the problem,” she says. “Cost-cutting should only happen if you are spending money superfluously. That’s why you cut costs. It should not be your strategy for profit. That’s not a way to generate revenue. Instead, consider using AI to see if there’s a way to increase profits versus decreasing expenses. Have that thought exercise. Bring it back to real business concepts, not just AI or people.”
Schwabe recommends outlining your business’s structure, business plan, financial goals, problems you’re encountering and the goal you would like to achieve. Then ask AI to review your organization and identify potential opportunities to reach your goal without cutting employees. “What makes AI great is that it can give you a new way to look at things,” Schwabe says. “Where people sometimes mess up is when they only ask AI to tell them who they need to let go so they can save money. But AI can see patterns we can’t. It can make judgment calls that we might not. It can think differently. So use its brain for what its brain can do.”
AI might suggest adding a new product line or reallocating certain resources or people; it can highlight where you are underperforming or overperforming and even suggest ways you can use AI to increase your profits without eliminating jobs. “When you approach it this way, you’re being a responsible human,” Schwabe points out.
To address the other two concerns exacerbated by AI—disorganization and lack of a succession plan—businesses need to invest in their employees. When a company allows employees to use a patchwork of free AI tools with zero standard operating procedures, lack of training and policy will become a massive liability. D’Agostino ays employees will do the best they can, but they’ll eventually get frustrated and resign.
Similarly, businesses that ban AI use are naive to think their employees aren’t using them. “They are using shadow AI,” says D’Agostino. “It’s called that when the employee doesn’t want the company to know they’re using AI. But they’re secretly putting company data into their own free large language models, potentially exposing the business.”
The businesses that survive the next decade will be the ones that standardize their AI tools, create an AI policy and manifesto (see pg. 20), implement highly structured internal training programs for all employees, and heavily invest in mentoring their junior staff.
“There will be large companies that have large failures,” says Schwabe. “I believe the rise of the small to midsized businesses will be an outcome of this. It’s difficult for companies with 500 people to connect with and invest in their employees, so employees become more expendable.”
Both experts believe that AI is transforming, not destroying, the future of work. Our economy and what work looks like will dramatically change over the next five or 10 years. And while neither expert could predict what those changes will be, AI is exposing and amplifying the weaknesses many businesses have chosen to ignore. But the companies that recognize they need humans in the loop will be the ones that survive.
This article was edited by Julie Schwietert Collazo and fact-checked by Isabella Aranda Garcia. The artist used Adobe Creative Suite.
This article was published in the September/October 2026 edition of Connect to Northern Westchester.
Gia Miller is an award-winning journalist and the editor-in-chief/co-publisher of Connect to Northern Westchester. She has a magazine journalism degree (yes, that's a real thing) from the University of Georgia and has written for countless national publications, ranging from SELF to The Washington Post. Gia desperately wishes schools still taught grammar. Also, she wants everyone to know they can delete the word "that" from about 90% of their sentences, and there's no such thing as "first annual." When she's not running her media empire, Gia enjoys spending quality time with friends and family, laughing at her crazy dog and listening to a good podcast. She thanks multiple alarms, fermented grapes and her amazing husband for helping her get through each day. Her love languages are food and humor.
Justin is an award-winning designer and photographer. He was the owner and creative director at Future Boy Design, producing work for clients such as National Parks Service, Vintage Cinemas, The Tarrytown Music Hall, and others. His work has appeared in Bloomberg TV, South by Southwest (SXSW), Edible Magazine, Westchester Magazine, Refinery 29, the Art Directors Club, AIGA and more.
Justin is a two-time winner of the International Design Awards, American Photography and Latin America Fotografia. Vice News has called Justin Negard as “one of the best artists working today.”
He is the author of two books, On Design, which discusses principles and the business of design, and Bogotà which is a photographic journey through the Colombian capital.
Additionally, Justin has served as Creative Director at CityMouse Inc., an NYC-based design firm which provides accessible design for people with disabilities, and has been awarded by the City of New York, MIT Media Lab and South By Southwest.
He lives in Katonah with his wonderfully patient wife, son and daughter.
