American billionaire and former Shark Tank investor Mark Cuban has now challenged the narrative that artificial intelligence will wipe out software jobs. As reported by Business Insider, in an interview with tech podcast TBPN, Cuban argued that AI adoption will actually lead to the creation of the millions of new roles, as tens of millions of US companies lack AI budgets or expertise. “There is nothing intuitive for a company to integrate AI and that’s what people don’t understand,” Cuban said. “Every single company needs that.”

Opportunity for young workers

Cuban also stressed on the fact that real opportunities lies in implementation, not just engineering. Cuban has advised the high school and college students to send time in learning how to use AI tools, make AI videos and also customise models so they can teach business leaders on how to harness the maximum potential of the technology. “This is where kids getting hired coming out of college are really going to have a unique opportunity,” he said, noting that younger workers are often more fearless in experimenting with AI compared to older employees.

Mark Cuban advice young engineers to not go behind big companies

Recently, Cuban urged the young engineers entering the job market to prioritise small and medium-sized companies over multinational corporations (MNCs) when seeking opportunities in artificial intelligence (AI). Cuban feels that smaller companies offer better platform for new graduates to make an immediate impact, while large corporations often dilute individual contributions.Speaking in an interview with CNBC and on his podcast The Dumbest Guy in the Room, Cuban explained that smaller companies are mainly entrepreneur-driven and they lack the deep IT departments or larger corporations. This gap creates opportunities for fresh graduates which directly contribute to the AI projects. “Small- to medium-size companies don’t have that depth. They are typically entrepreneurially driven and don’t have the flexibility to have people research things. Bringing a new graduate on to work on agentic AI projects is inexpensive for them and can get them immediate results,” Cuban said.Cuban also used the example of his own company, Cost Plus Drugs, noting how AI can automate processes to boost productivity, competitiveness, and profitability.Cuban argued that in big organisations, AI skills may not stand out as they are common among thousands of IT employees. On the other hand, in smaller firms often lack such expertise, making new graduates with AI knowledge invaluable.