Verizon CEO Dan Schulman is calling the AI buildout an economic shock, not a slow software upgrade. At an event in Detroit, he said some form of AGI could arrive in the next six to 18 months and that 'we’ve got a decade of intense change ahead of us.'
Schulman said the pace of change is already accelerating. 'The models that we see today are the worst models we’ll ever use in our lives,' he said, adding that the technology is improving every two months. He said the next phase would bring 'the era of quantum' and later 'a pretty good form of humanoid robotics' by 2030 or 2035.
He also said the effect on the economy would arrive faster than institutions can absorb it. Schulman argued that AI’s social and economic consequences will outpace the usual adjustment tools, including training systems, labor markets, corporate restructuring and public policy. 'It is about machines that will in many ways be able to do things better than a lot of human tasks are done today,' he said.
The Verizon chief said the shift will hit his own company. Verizon has more than 250,000 employees and contractors, and Schulman said the company will need to move from 'very defined roles and functions' to a 'much more fluid organization.' He added that 'everybody’s job is going to shift' and that not everyone will 'land just magically in a better place per se.'
At Verizon last week, Schulman said the company announced a $70 million initiative to train American workers, not only Verizon workers. The program includes free AI training and work with local organizations on career development.
Schulman said corporate leaders and government should prepare for disruption now. 'Our responsibility is to think about what might go wrong; what might we need to address; what might the disruption look like; and how do we put guardrails, training, programs in place to minimize that risk,' he said.
Other executives on the panel pointed to a more durable reality: even in a more automated economy, physical work does not disappear. PG&E CEO Patti Poppe said future grids will still need workers in the field. Dave Regnery, CEO of Trane Technologies, said AI can make buildings run more efficiently rather than simply cut headcount.
The market has already voted on the direction of travel. Capital is chasing AI, but the bill for adaptation will not be paid by algorithms. It will be paid by firms, workers and, eventually, the taxpayer if policymakers choose the wrong response. The central question is whether the administrative state and corporate America can keep up with a technology wave that is moving on a shorter timetable than the institutions built to manage it.
