Can AI replace humans? Workforce needs are evolving with new technology

By Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Butler

The advent of artificial intelligence has raised concerns that the technology will replace millions of human jobs. These concerns are understandable. However, AI is also creating workforce needs each day, which is especially true in the Texas energy sector.

The energy sector was already ripe with opportunities for Texans. The rise of AI is expanding those opportunities. That was the clear message at the Energy Symposium hosted by the Kay Bailey Hutchison Energy Center at The University of Texas earlier this month. Some of the most respected voices in the energy business and the academic world described the need to provide power and other infrastructure around enormous data centers as one of several significant opportunities for the energy industry and the students who want to work in it.

“This is the most glorious time I can think of to be a student,” Jim Breyer, the founder of Breyer Capital and one of the first foundational investors in Facebook, told our symposium audience. He likened this moment in AI to a football game that has just begun.

Other speakers noted that Texas’ competitive marketplace, low regulations and availability of land make our state especially attractive for AI investments.

The opportunities for economic and career growth in Texas go well beyond AI. ExxonMobil Chairman and CEO Darren Woods highlighted the fact that 4 billion people around the world lack access to reliable, adequate energy. His company recently released a global outlook that predicts oil and natural gas will still make up half the world’s energy supply by 2050. The outlook also says the biggest change in the world’s energy mix over the next 25 years will be a significant increase in solar and wind, coupled with a large reduction in coal.

Other speakers emphasized a similar theme: The world does not face a binary choice, with oil and gas on one side and renewable energy on the other. Rather, all forms of energy are going to be needed to meet the world’s needs. And, as Woods pointed out, emerging technologies are helping to reduce carbon emissions from traditional energy sources.

The potential is everywhere. Abilene Christian University, UT Austin, Texas A&M and Georgia Tech are involved in the construction of a molten salt research reactor in Abilene. It is one of only two research reactor projects that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved in more than 30 years. A molten salt reactor is different from a typical nuclear reactor because it uses liquid fuel, which provides advantages in efficiency and safety, as opposed to solid fuel. The research findings in Abilene can spur similar projects in the private sector.

The KBH Energy Center brings together faculty and programs from four UT Austin schools—business, law, engineering, and geosciences—to reflect the breadth of opportunities in the energy sector. The program is designed to help students explore a wide range of interests and career paths under the energy umbrella. For example, students from any school at UT can pursue a minor in energy to complement their primary studies and enhance their marketability to future employers. These students and others engaged with the KBH Energy Center will be ready to build careers in an array of fields throughout the industry and the need for reliable, abundant, affordable energy is essential for the American economy that these young people will soon join.

Technological changes will render some jobs obsolete. They always have. However, young Texans should not be discouraged. Change also brings opportunity, and many of those opportunities will be found in the Texas energy sector.

Kay Bailey Hutchison served in the U.S. Senate from 1993 to 2013 and as the U.S. Ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization from 2017 to 2021. John Butler is the Academic Director of the Kay Bailey Hutchison Energy Center, Director of MS Finance and Director of Energy Studies Minor at McCombs School of Business at University of Texas at Austin.