Navigating the Human Side of AI Automation
The July AI Founding Story: Reinventing Economic Opportunity in the AI Era
“Is AI augmenting humans or replacing them?”
In 2023, I was researching AI-driven automation trends at a foundation model company, Adept. We were building one of the industry's first general-purpose agentic models.
Before launching publicly, I (naturally) prepared for questions about AI’s impact on the workforce. As a businessperson, I wanted to be ready with thoughtful, credible answers. I dove into research such as McKinsey, World Economic Forum, LinkedIn, university studies; and surfaced two recurring assertions:
Net new creation: As with every wave of technological innovation, some jobs will disappear (think horse-drawn carts), but more new roles will be created to support the emerging ecosystem (think the auto industry).
Augmentation, not replacement: AI doesn't match human intelligence or accountability. Therefore, it will augment - rather than replace - human capabilities. People will remain in the loop.
At the time, I was pregnant and this question began to profoundly concern me.
But the deeper I looked, the more questions emerged. Some of the assumptions underpinning these optimistic narratives felt shaky.
What if someone simply said:
“AI is getting smarter. Full stop.”
Or challenged:
“‘Human in the loop’ isn’t new - how entry-level work already operates. Junior staff produce the first draft; senior managers review and refine. In this setup, AI doesn’t assist - it replaces the juniors.”
This raises unsettling questions. What if AI's rapid progress doesn't create new opportunities, but rather systematically eliminates entire classes of jobs? What if the "human in the loop" model is just a temporary stop-gap before AI takes over even high-level tasks and decision-making?
Post-pandemic, many companies are already restructuring their orgs in favor of productivity gains. This, however, feels different from a reduction in the work force to realign their organizations to accommodate downturns or strategic shifts. It meant that, potentially, companies will need drastically less employees across all functions, various levels, and regions. The companies’ incentives are clear. So where does this leave people?
At the time, I was pregnant - about to become a first-time mom - and this question began to profoundly concern me. I struggled to answer these - personally and professionally:
Will this trend accelerate? What will it look like when my child enters the workforce?
If there are far fewer jobs, what “opportunities” remain for the next generation?
I’d take a world with AI over one without it. Without relentless effort, however, AI could just as easily take us in the wrong direction.
AI is unlocking opportunities we couldn’t have imagined - and that’s why I chose this industry. I’d take a world with AI over one without it: a world where language barriers don’t dictate where you can live and work, and where talented new graduates don’t have to burn half their time on meeting summaries. But these benefits aren’t guaranteed. Without deliberate, relentless effort, AI could just as easily take us in the wrong direction.
Fast forward to 2025: Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei publicly warned that we’re likely to see mass displacement - half of all entry-level jobs could disappear. Around the same time, the results of Sam Altman’s Universal Basic Income pilot were released.
Compared to the automation side of AI, we see much less energy on mitigating the human impact. That’s why we started July AI.
The message is clear: a transition is coming. There is a powerful concentration of capital and talent pouring into the automation side of AI; and comparatively far less energy is going toward understanding or mitigating the human impact.
Is this problem solvable? We’re not sure.
But does it deserve more attention, experimentation, and commitment? Absolutely.
That’s why we started July AI in late 2024: Reinventing economic opportunity for humans in the AI era. We are lucky to have begun our journey with trusted investors and advisors including Basis Set, SV Angel, Liquid 2, Night Capital, Olive Capital, and Applied Intuition CEO Qasar Younis just to name a few. We are excited to share more about what we are building in the coming weeks.
Stay tuned!