Microsoft AI chief says white-collar jobs could be automated within 18 months
Microsoft AI chief says white-collar jobs could be automated within 18 months
Publish Date: 2026-02-16 07:32:00
Source Domain: www.dagens.com
Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman predicts that within 18 months, artificial intelligence could achieve human-level performance across most professional tasks, potentially automating large swaths of white-collar work.
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One of the world’s top AI executives has put a striking deadline on the future of office work.
According to Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman, many professional roles could be overtaken by artificial intelligence far sooner than expected.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Suleyman predicted “human-level performance on most, if not all professional tasks” within the next year to 18 months. Jobs involving “sitting down at a computer” — including accounting, legal work, marketing and project management — are particularly exposed, he said.
The warning adds to a series of forecasts from industry leaders who argue that white-collar employment is on the brink of sweeping disruption.
A familiar alarm
Suleyman’s comments echo recent statements from other executives. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei warned last year that AI could eliminate half of entry-level white-collar roles. Ford CEO Jim Farley suggested AI could halve US white-collar jobs.
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SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has also said artificial general intelligence could arrive as early as this year.
Suleyman pointed to rapid increases in computing power as a key driver. As “compute” expands, he argued, AI models will outperform most human coders and scale into other professional fields.
Reality check
Despite the bold predictions, evidence of widespread displacement remains limited.
A 2025 Thomson Reuters report found that lawyers and accountants are testing AI for specific tasks such as document review, but gains have so far been incremental. A study by nonprofit Model…
