Generative AI: Great Investment, Job Killer, or Both?

Technology is changing how we live and how we work, in a radical and seemingly accelerating fashion. Cherdchai101/Shutterstock

Although it’s the buzzword of the moment, artificial intelligence (AI) has been with us for a while, with its origins going as far back as the 1940s.

Beginning with the transition from direct logic, Boolean math, and syllogisms, and moving into indirect logic, AI brought in new ways and means of analyzing data. Sometimes called “fuzzy logic,” it helped extrapolate patterns and make predictions based on probabilities.

Taking inputs and looking for patterns, building upon the most likely outcomes, AI found itself in the same domain as a good lawyer—drawing conclusions and making the case for the conclusions, based on powerful “evidence.”

News today is rife with new developments in AI, stories about the power to bring us answers to our search, the excessive energy required to run AI, threats from China’s AI (DeepSeek), and concerns about AI taking over our jobs.

Let’s unpack all this as succinctly as possible. It’s easy to get caught up in the arcane jargon—a problem that many of us had when we sought to understand crypto.

What Are Gen AI and GPT?

Generative AI (Gen AI) is a broad category that produces content ranging from text and music to simulations and videos.

Multimodal generative AI systems are now capable of processing and generating output across multiple formats: text, audio, images, and video. There are also efforts aimed at building responsible AI models that enhance privacy, security, and fairness.

Gen AI is driving progress in multiple fields simultaneously: climate research, sustainable manufacturing, drug discovery, and many other areas, analyzing data and yielding new insights.

Short for “generative pre-trained transformer,” GPT is a key component of generative AI. GPT specializes in human-like content including text and images, and answers questions in a conversational manner.

GPT has a variety of uses, including social media content, computer programming, data analysis, learning materials, and voice assistants.

Leaders in AI

Some of the leaders in the AI race, according to an August 2024 article in tech magazine eWeek, are OpenAI (best overall) Microsoft (best enterprise generative AI partner) Alphabet (Google) (best for integrated generative AI solutions), Anthropic (best for generative AI safety and explainability), and Meta (best for advertisers).

OpenAI introduced a platform where users can create, customize, and share GPTs tailored for specific tasks.

Microsoft launched a premium service called Copilot Pro, offering GPT-4 Turbo and introducing Copilot Voice for real-time voice conversations, along with Copilot Vision for browsing and discussing websites.

Anthropic introduced Claude 3, Gen AI models capable of processing text and images.

Investment Perspective

Over the past few years, investments in the Gen AI vertical have proved quite lucrative.

With its AI portfolio, which includes OpenAI and Azure, Microsoft reported a 20 percent year-over-year jump in non-GAAP earnings in fiscal 2024, to $11.80 per share.

Alphabet Inc. continues to innovate in AI through Google Cloud and other ventures. Shares of Google parent Alphabet surged 35.5 percent in 2024, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Nvidia Corp (NVDA) is the leading semiconductor manufacturer of graphics processing units crucial for AI applications. NVIDIA stock skyrocketed 171 percent in 2024.

Cloud software seller Salesforce Inc. (CRM) is integrating AI into its customer relationship management services. CRM finished 2024 with a 27 percent increase.

Tech giant Oracle Corp. is investing heavily in AI and cloud technologies. Oracle’s stock had an impressive year in 2024, rising 48 percent. This gain was largely driven by the increasing demand for Oracle’s cloud infrastructure, especially for handling AI workload.

Known for creative software like Photoshop, Adobe Inc. is leveraging AI for creative software solutions. On a year-over-year basis, Adobe earnings rose 13 percent, while sales climbed 11 percent.

Database company MongoDB Inc. (MDB) is offering AI-powered database solutions. MDB stock grew by 245 percent, from $145 in November 2022 to $500 in February 2024, versus an increase of about 33 percent for the S&P 500 over the same 15-month period. Unfortunately, MDB had a rough year in 2024, with shares down about 40 percent. Yet most analysts see light at the end of the tunnel for the stock in 2025.

Amazon.com Inc. is aggressively expanding its AI capabilities through AWS and other services. In 2024, Amazon emerged as a powerhouse performer in the sector, with stock surging 44 percent because of business execution and groundbreaking AI innovations. Looking to 2025, several compelling factors suggest that momentum will continue.

Jobs Perspective

Technology is changing the job landscape faster than ever. If we draw an axis and place structured jobs on the left axis and highly ambiguous jobs on the right, we can be certain that many of the jobs that fall closer to the left axis will disappear within a decade.

AI, robots, automation, and other technologies are making many manual labor jobs obsolete. It looks like in years to come, AI will take over many repetitive, routine tasks while higher-paying and more challenging jobs will need to remain with humans.

One reason why jobs on the right axis won’t disappear anytime soon is that the higher managers move up in business organizations, the less clear the business decisions that go with those higher-paying jobs.

The more uncertainty is involved in a job, the less Gen AI can help. Examples include C-suite jobs, complex medical diagnoses, problems that throw a bevy of variables at the decision-maker, and jobs that require picking the most important variables for which a decision must be made and then predicting where those variables are likely to move in the future.

These are the interesting, challenging, and higher-paying societal roles that Gen AI simply cannot replace.

These points, and the graph below, are from my book, “Navigating the New Normal.”

From “disappearing” jobs to “higher paying jobs”:

Courtesy of Rodd Mann

Navigating AI

Technology is changing how we live and how we work in a radical and seemingly accelerating fashion. Change at such a breakneck pace can create stress and uncertainty. Its ethical implications also require consideration.

One way to deal with the stress is to dive in and learn enough about it to make decisions in terms of our own lives and goals. Investing is one set of decisions, and our career choices are yet another.

The Epoch Times copyright © 2025. The views and opinions expressed are those of the authors. They are meant for general informational purposes only and should not be construed or interpreted as a recommendation or solicitation. The Epoch Times does not provide investment, tax, legal, financial planning, estate planning, or any other personal finance advice. The Epoch Times holds no liability for the accuracy or timeliness of the information provided.