CUTC 2026
Be the Bridge
Why the AI doom narrative is a lie
(Yes, this is an AI talk. No, please don't boo.)
Jonathan Murray - Backboard.io
By the end of this talk
92M
you've seen this one
95%
you haven't
These two numbers add up to the biggest opportunity of your lifetime.
10
interns. For an 18-person company.
More than half our team this year is people just starting out. People just like you.
We hired for three things
Bought in.
AI-native.
Open.
Not pedigree.
The market sorts by whether you're still moving.
World Economic Forum - Future of Jobs 2025
92M
jobs displaced by 2030
You've seen this. Your parents have seen this.
What you saw
92M
jobs displaced
What they buried
170M
new roles created
Same report. Same page. Net positive by 80 million.
A headline is not information you can use.
It is weather.
MIT Project NANDA - The GenAI Divide, 2025
95%
of enterprise AI projects failed.
Not because the technology didn't work. Because nobody knew how to bridge it to the people and the processes.
Put it together
170 million new roles. 95% of AI projects failing. 30 billion sitting on the table.
This isn't a job crisis.
It's the biggest staffing gap in modern economic history.
What I learned at Stryker
The reps who got into the room were not the smartest. They were the ones who showed up prepared.
The doom narrative wants you to brace.
I want you to prepare.
Right now, it is a thunderstorm
The track is wet.
The pecking order is the least stable it has ever been.
The storm you were told about
The doom that never came.
Ten years of warnings. Skies still clear.
The storm happening now
The opportunity.
Most people are bracing for the wrong one.
F1 isn't won by the driver.
F1 is won by the team.
Driver. Strategist. Mechanic. Engineer. Designer. PM. Salesperson.
The crew matters more than the car in the rain.
Put on the wets and go.
Over there
Google.
Middle
Anthropic.
On the right
OpenAI.
Dario Amodei, CEO Anthropic - May 2025
“AI could eliminate half of all entry-level white-collar jobs within five years.
Dario Amodei, CEO Anthropic - May 2026
“If you automate 90% of the job, then everyone does the 10%. And the 10% expands to be 100% of what people do, and 10x's their productivity.
Same CEO. Same year. Opposite story.
You wouldn't take career advice
from a company whose business model depends on you not having a career.
The question
Hands up if you'd rather believe
the best is still ahead.
They told me it was going to rain doom for ten years.
The doom never came.
Meanwhile the real storm - the opportunity - was happening the whole time.
I put on the wets for the right storm.
And I went.
Go invent something else.
Thank you - CUTC 2026