Cathie Wood is urging young workers struggling with a difficult job market to turn toward artificial intelligence rather than waiting for traditional employment to come back.
In a new interview with ARK President and Chief Operating Officer Tom Staudt, Wood says the rising unemployment rate among young workers and fresh graduates has set the stage for a generational opportunity.
According to the ARK Invest CEO, young people can leverage AI to set up their own business.
“Parents whose children are graduating from college, that unemployment rate has been going up. Lots and lots of concern about that. What I usually say is you tell your child to go for it in AI. Apparently, the duration of unemployment these days is roughly 30 weeks. Okay, if you have 30 weeks to keep interviewing, also, start learning about AI, start vibe coding and start talking to ChatGPT, and start building a business that you are just passionate about, even if it is just to learn about AI.”
She says the tools available today give young people an advantage that did not exist in prior cycles. Most of what is needed to start a project now costs nothing.
“I think we are probably moving into a world where entrepreneurs, thanks to AI, all of the tools that are out there, many of them free to start. They are going to be able to build businesses and have independence as entrepreneurs that even they did not understand or did not dream about.”
Wood highlights that the current downturn in hiring is an unexpected doorway into independence.
“But this particular situation put them into a place of opportunity. Go for it. Just go for it. That is what I keep telling all the young people. The cost of innovation is collapsing. And just use those tools and vibe code.”
The star fund manager also gives some practical tips on how young people could build their own business.
“You can experiment. Say, this is the business I want to build. Again, you have to become an expert at prompting exactly what you want to build. This is what I want to build. Help me build it from here to there. And it will get stuck, and it will get stuck. But you will learn so much along the way. And maybe at the end of it, you will have your very own business.”
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