Sam Altman Just Quietly Described the Future of AI — and Most Institutions Still Act Like It’s Science Fiction

Author

Alex Goryachev
June 14, 2025

On Friday, June 7, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, published a short post that deserves your attention. It’s called The Gentle Singularity, and while it’s only a few paragraphs long, it marks a turning point in how the people building AI are talking about what comes next.

Altman doesn’t predict a sudden disruption. He suggests we’re already living through it. According to him, we’ve crossed into a world where AI agents will soon be able to do real work, generate new scientific insights, and eventually operate in the physical world. Not someday — in the next few years.

His argument isn’t that the singularity will be explosive. It’s that it will feel normal. Gentle, Gradual and Unstoppable. That should be a wake-up call.

And yet, the most innovative companies, the most powerful academic institutions, and even entire countries still seem wildly unprepared.

Most of the leaders I speak with are still acting like this shift is theoretical, or years away. They’re revising processes slowly. Launching pilots cautiously. Watching from the sidelines while the terrain changes underneath them.

This week, I wanted to test Altman’s theory — to look at what’s actually happening in education, hiring, policy, and business — and ask: If the future is arriving gently… why are we still stuck in systems built for a different century?

AI Is Replacing “Pacing” with Performance

HP Digital Services President Faisal Masud didn’t sugarcoat it: “Only people who don’t use AI will be replaced.”

My Take: I say this in every keynote: AI won’t take your job — but someone who knows how to use it will. I recently watched two project managers tackle the same assignment. One used an AI agent and delivered in 24 hours. The other was still outlining by the end of the week — and praised for “pacing themselves.”

Early in my career, a senior IT leader gave me advice I’ll never forget: “Don’t rush it — the business will wait.” That mindset might have worked in a slower world. But today, users are hungry for innovation. They’re experimenting with tools long before their organizations approve them. And if you’re still debating your AI policy — you’re already too late.

Altman may describe this transition as gentle — but inside most organizations, it feels like freefall. People are quietly reshaping how work gets done, and the systems designed to support them aren’t even watching.s smooth — but on the inside, it feels like freefall. People are quietly reshaping how work gets done, and the systems designed to support them aren’t even watching.

Junior Roles Are Being Rewritten — Regretfully, Without HR

Cognizant CEO Ravi Kumar shared that AI-enabled junior developers are now 37% more productive than their peers.

My Take: This shift isn’t theoretical. It’s already happening. But in most companies, HR still isn’t part of the conversation.

I’ve always advocated for HR to be at the table — not after the fact, but from the beginning. The most successful AI transformations I’ve seen were co-created with HR, operations, and business leads together. Otherwise, you end up hiring for jobs that no longer exist — or worse, retraining too late. Entry-level roles aren’t going away. They’re becoming more complex. If we don’t redesign them now, we’re either onboarding or gradduating people into irrelevance.

Altman’s singularity may be gentle in how it rolls out — but it’s brutal for those still relying on legacy career paths. The most forward-looking orgs are rewriting what it means to be “entry-level” — with complexity, agility, and AI fluency as the new baseline.

Corporate America Is Begging for AI in Schools

250+ CEOs from companies like OpenAI, Accenture, IBM, and GM signed a public letter urging U.S. governors to require AI classes in high school.

My Take: I’ve been advocating for this for a while. I use AI with my sons, Zachary and Matthew. We prompt together, explore questions, create stories, and use it as a thinking partner. Recently, someone told me it was “seriously troubling” that I was teaching my kids to "rely" on AI. That’s fine. I’ll take the heat — because what’s actually troubling is watching school systems hesitate while the future rolls forward. This isn’t about offloading thinking. It’s about learning how to think differently — alongside the tools that will shape their education, their creativity, and their careers.

The 250 CEOs who signed this letter understand what’s at stake. If we don’t teach students how to use AI well, we’re leaving them unprepared for the world they’re already growing up in. Zachary and Matthew aren’t waiting. And neither are the companies they’ll eventually work for.

Altman says this shift won’t be disruptive. But that’s only true if we equip the next generation to use the tools before they’re replaced by them. If we wait, the singularity might still be gentle — but the consequences won’t be.

Companies Are Scaling AI — Without the Strategy to Match

McKinsey’s 2025 State of AI report says 92% of companies plan to increase AI investment this year. Only 1% say they’re ready to scale it.

My Take: This is what quiet chaos looks like. Most companies are spending more on AI — but treating it like an IT upgrade. I’ve seen too many organizations relegate AI to a technical team or a “center of excellence,” completely disconnected from the people who are actually supposed to use it.

That’s not transformation. That’s outsourcing responsibility. AI doesn’t work when it’s isolated. It can’t live in a product team, a lab, or a pilot report that never gets read. That’s why I insist on running cross-functional AI innovation workshops — where HR, IT, operations, marketing, finance, and legal are all in the room together. Everyone who touches the work needs to be part of designing how AI changes it.

Altman’s post assumes a gentle trajectory. But what I see is fragmentation. AI strategy has to be cross-functional, fast, and owned by everyone — or it simply doesn’t happen. The singularity may be gentle, but confusion is not. AI won’t break your business. Misalignment will.

The Numbers That Reveal the Challenge

These aren’t trendlines. They’re fault lines.

If you’re a leader: start redesigning your org before the default workflows redesign it for you. If you’re a professional: stop waiting for permission — build fluency, start using tools, and make AI part of how you solve problems now.

This moment may be “gentle,” but your response needs to be urgent.

What Winners Do While Losers Wait for Permission

If Sam Altman is right — and this is the start of a gentle singularity — then the most dangerous thing you can do right now is assume you have time.

The most successful organizations I work with aren’t waiting for the dust to settle. They’ve accepted that change is already underway, and they’re building new muscles to match it. They share three behaviors:

  1. They co-innovate across all levels of employees and stakeholders. They listen. They don’t just deploy tools — they involve the people who actually use them in the redesign.

  2. They act instead of waiting. They launch bold experiments, build fast, and refine in real time — even before policy catches up.

  3. They’re transparent. They talk openly about what’s working, what’s not, and what they’re still figuring out. They treat change as a shared conversation, not a controlled rollout.

The most successful organizations apply these same principles across the board — in how they build their workforce, in how they teach and learn, and in how they prepare the next generation for what’s next.

If you’re waiting for someone in an executive boardroom to tell you what to do about AI, you’ve already missed the moment. The shift is already underway, powered by people like you who aren’t waiting for permission.

Wherever you sit — educator, manager, team lead, parent, student — now is the time to move. Build something. Test something. Question something. Because the singularity might be unfolding quietly, but the opportunity to lead through it won’t stay open forever.

Until next week -

Alex G.