For office workers fearing an AI‑driven job purge, Morgan Stanley offers a silver lining.
On Friday, the Wall Street firm noted that the demographic most vulnerable to AI disruption could also reap the greatest rewards. While headlines have been filled with AI‑related layoffs, white‑collar employees across sectors have been wondering whether their roles are next to be automated.
However, Morgan Stanley economist Heather Berger argues that these very workers are likely to benefit from AI’s reshaping of the labor market.
“High‑income, college‑educated, urban households face the greatest risk of AI displacement, but also stand to gain from AI‑driven productivity, wage growth, new jobs, wealth effects, and longer‑term disinflation,” she wrote. “We believe these upside possibilities are often overlooked.”
Berger’s team coined the term CHIC—college‑educated, high‑income, city‑dwelling. According to Morgan Stanley, this cohort is most likely to feel AI’s impact as a disruptive force in the job market as the technology advances.
Economists observed that younger CHIC workers are more likely to have routine, entry‑level tasks automated by AI, while older colleagues could benefit from wage growth driven by AI‑boosted productivity without being fully replaced.
“Job creation is still in its infancy, but early AI‑related roles have so far targeted those same CHIC consumers,” Berger added. “AI job ads have focused on higher‑income individuals with experience in similarly exposed sectors.”
The forecast arrives amid growing anxiety about AI’s impact on employment, fueled by dire warnings from industry insiders and viral doomsday scenarios. Yet Berger’s team argues that such fears may be overblown, a view echoed by others.
Andrew Slimmon, head of applied equity advisors at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, told Themoneytimes earlier this year that he was unconcerned about AI’s effect on jobs. He forecast a market rebound and strengthening, likening it to the early‑2000s dot‑com boom that reshaped the workforce.
Berger and her team now anticipate a parallel development as AI advances reshape the economy, benefitting CHIC households, generating additional wealth, and ultimately driving higher consumer spending.
“Overall, CHIC households face greater risk of labor displacement, but also stand to gain from productivity‑driven wage growth, new job creation, wealth effects, and longer‑term disinflation,” Berger concluded.