In a recent LinkedIn post, Linas Beliūnas challenges the prevailing narrative that Artificial Intelligence is poised to decimate the job market. Instead, Beliūnas presents data and analysis suggesting that AI is currently a net job creator, driving demand in both new and existing sectors.
Beliūnas begins by directly confronting the widespread fear of AI-driven unemployment. He notes that the initial predictions of mass job destruction have not materialized as expected.
“Everyone said AI was going to destroy the job market. So far, it’s doing the exact opposite: creating more jobs.”
To support this assertion, Beliūnas cites estimates from The Economist, indicating that AI has already generated approximately one million jobs in the United States. He contrasts this with the number of AI-attributed layoffs since mid-2023, which he places at around 200,000, suggesting a significant surplus of job creation over elimination.
The Diverse Landscape of AI-Generated Employment
A key point Beliūnas makes is that the jobs being created by AI are not limited to highly technical roles such as AI engineers. He highlights several areas where new employment opportunities are emerging due to the growth of AI infrastructure and applications.
According to Beliūnas, the burgeoning data-center construction industry is a prime example. This sector is now experiencing annual spending exceeding $75 billion, which in turn creates demand for a wide array of skilled labor, including electricians, HVAC specialists, grid engineers, and technicians.
Beliūnas also points to LinkedIn’s projections, estimating that roughly 640,000 new AI-specific jobs were created between 2023 and 2025. Furthermore, he notes a substantial increase in employment within AI-adjacent professional roles, such as engineers, developers, mathematicians, and data scientists, with job growth exceeding trend by approximately 730,000 positions since 2022.
Growth in Seemingly Vulnerable Sectors
Intriguingly, Beliūnas observes that even some job categories previously considered vulnerable to AI disruption are showing signs of growth. He provides data indicating that paralegal employment rose by about 11% and market-research analyst positions increased by approximately 6% between 2023 and 2025.
“The broader pattern is becoming clearer: AI destroys certain tasks, then creates entirely new bottlenecks around itself.”
This observation leads Beliūnas to argue that AI’s impact is more nuanced than a simple replacement of human workers. He suggests that AI’s primary effect is often the automation of specific tasks, which then necessitates new roles and expertise to manage, integrate, and leverage the technology.
The Bottlenecks Driving New Job Creation
Beliūnas elaborates on the concept of AI creating new bottlenecks that, in turn, fuel job growth. He outlines a chain reaction where increased AI capabilities lead to a cascade of demands across various industries.
As Beliūnas explains, the need for more computational power drives demand for energy infrastructure. Similarly, the proliferation of AI technologies requires more physical infrastructure, such as data centers. He also points out that the deployment and supervision of AI agents necessitate human oversight and management.
“More compute needs more power. More AI needs more infrastructure. More agents need more people to build, deploy, and supervise them.”
This perspective suggests a symbiotic relationship between AI development and human employment, where technological advancement creates new challenges and requirements that can only be met by human labor.
Rethinking the Future of Work
In conclusion, Linas Beliūnas offers a re-evaluation of the future of work in the age of AI. He posits that the narrative of a direct conflict between humans and AI may be an oversimplification.
Instead, Beliūnas suggests that the evolution of the job market will likely involve AI automating certain tasks and roles, but simultaneously inventing and creating new, potentially better, job opportunities at an even faster pace.
“So perhaps the future of work may not be ‘humans vs AI’ after all. It may simply be AI replacing some jobs while inventing better ones faster.”
His analysis provides a counterpoint to the widespread anxiety surrounding AI’s impact on employment, offering a more optimistic and data-driven view of its potential to reshape, rather than simply eliminate, the world of work.
📝 About This Content
This article is based on insights shared by Linas Beliūnas on LinkedIn.
📅 Originally posted on September 7, 2026 | View original post on LinkedIn →