OpenAI Essay Lays Out Three Ways AI Could Reshape Your Job
Two young OpenAI employees have published an essay arguing that AI will not just take jobs away, but will slot into company org charts in three different ways: beneath workers, beside them, or between them.
What this means for you
This site exists to explain big ideas about AI in plain words, for people who are busy but curious. You should not need a dictionary to understand where your job might be headed. Here is the plain version of what this essay says, and why it matters to anyone who works for a living.
The essay was written by Hemanth Asirvatham and Elliott Mokski. It is the second piece in a new OpenAI series about what they call "the next economy." The authors say the views are their own, not OpenAI's official position. Both writers say they started managing teams at age 24, but their "team members" are AI agents, not people. They say these AI workers never sleep, never take holidays, and are getting better over time, though they still make mistakes.
The authors use this personal story to ask a bigger question: when a company brings AI into the business, where does it actually go on the org chart? They offer three possible answers.
Three ways AI could join your company
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Beneath you. Everyone keeps their current job title and spot on the team. But under each person, a new layer of AI "workers" appears, handling tasks like email, memos, and notes. Over time, these AI helpers get better and need less oversight. The authors use an example of an accountant named Jace. His AI agents now do the spreadsheet work he used to do, so his job shifts to planning, communication, and leadership instead.
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Beside you. Here, AI does not sit underneath workers. It becomes more like a coworker, handling a slice of the team's work the way a manager might hand a task to an employee. The essay gives an example of a VP named Sheila, who has never run an ad campaign. She hands the job to a team of AI agents, who split the work, survey customers, and even flag details she would have missed, like a product photo looking the wrong color.
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Between you. This is the most unusual option. Human bosses stay on top, and human workers stay on the ground, but AI sits in the middle. It coordinates tasks, checks on progress, and makes sure everyone's work fits the boss's overall plan.
The authors say no single scenario will play out exactly as described. But they believe pieces of all three are already showing up in real workplaces today.
Why they think entry-level jobs change the most
The essay argues that the biggest shift will hit people just starting their careers. In the past, new workers did the boring, repetitive tasks first, then slowly earned more responsibility. The authors say AI may take over that bottom rung entirely.
They see this as mostly a good thing, not a loss. A young worker with a strong idea, they argue, no longer needs to wait years to get the resources or staff to try it. Instead, that worker can direct AI agents to help build it right away.
The authors also push back on a common worry that AI replacing tasks means fewer total jobs. They say history shows that when technology takes over part of a job, people's roles often grow bigger and more complex instead of disappearing. They compare this to past waves of technology, where productivity rose, people's ambitions grew with it, and pay often rose too.
At the same time, the essay admits this outcome is not guaranteed. It depends on whether people still want more output once AI makes things cheaper and faster to produce. If demand does not keep growing, companies might need fewer workers or fewer hours instead.
The authors also argue that AI which can handle a whole job or whole team, not just a single narrow task, will actually be easier for companies to adopt. That is because workers naturally learn how to fit into a company, while companies struggle to learn how to use a brand new tool. In their view, the smarter and more independent AI becomes, the simpler it will be for businesses to bring it on board.
Next step
If your job involves repetitive, lower-level tasks today, it may be worth asking your manager how your company plans to use AI tools in the next year, so you can start building the planning and leadership skills this essay says will matter most.
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Source: OpenAI
