Verizon boss calls for blunt conversations about AI impact

Verizon CEO Dan Schulman ( pictured ) urged fellow CEOs to be open and honest about the disruption AI will cause to workforces, telling the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) the technology will completely reshape how the company operates. Schulman opened up on the impact of AI in an interview, with his comments coming months after Verizon outlined plans to cut more than 13,000 jobs as part of a restructuring effort. The former PayPal boss did not blame the cuts at the time specifically on AI and instead focused on a drive to make the operator more efficient, while also creating a $20 million fund designed to help employees with reskilling, career transition and help departing staff with digital training and job placement. On a wider scale, Schulman has predicted 20 per cent to 30 per cent unemployment within the next three to five years. “It’s a very difficult time, and everyone knows it,” Schulman told WSJ . “So I think being authentic, being realistic, telling the truth, as best you can, is essential.” Since taking the role at Verizon in October 2025 , Schulman has apparently urged Verizon’s workforce to embrace AI, encouraging employees to discuss the technology with their children, write AI-based poems for loved ones and even formulte their own obituaries to see how the technology frames their lives. “Like it or not, we live in the age of AI. I happen to like it.” Change everything During the interview, Schulman also apparently said AI may reach human level ability, or artificial general intelligence, by the end of next year, while tipping advancement in humanoid robots to cause disruption to manual labour jobs. The rise of quantum computing will “change everything again,” he added. WSJ cited a recent Boston Consulting report which predicts AI will reshape roughly half of the jobs in the US in two to three years, resulting in 15 per cent of jobs being eliminated completely. The post Verizon boss calls for blunt conversations about AI impact appeared first on Mobile World Live .