SHIFT's Tange tells new hires: AI will erase your job — think it through

The AI Leaders Conference 2026 Spring, organized by Nikkei BP, gathered executives and researchers to debate how AI reshapes work rather than just which tools to buy. SHIFT's Dai Tange used his platform to push the argument further than most: instead of treating job loss as a risk to manage, he asked each employee to start from the premise that their own role will vanish, and said new hires are told the same.

The conference also featured AI researcher François Chollet, co-founder of the US startup Ndea, who spoke on March 3 and framed AGI as the ability to solve problems never seen before. That definition sits alongside Tange's workforce message as part of the same debate over what AI can do and what it means for the people doing the work.

Other sessions listed from the event covered manufacturing tacit knowledge, customer experience, and the risk of companies converging on identical AI output, suggesting the discussion ranged from shop-floor know-how to brand identity.