Billionaire tech CEO says bosses shouldn't 'BS' employees about the impact AI will have on jobs

Corporate leaders can't "bulls---" their employees about the impact of artificial intelligence on the workforce and the ways in which the technology will affect jobs more broadly, according to one tech billionaire.

Jim Kavanaugh, the CEO of World Wide Technology (WWT), told CNBC that people are "too smart" to accept that AI won't change the way that they manage their work and that no jobs will be eliminated due to the transformative nature of the technology.

WWT is an enterprise technology solutions provider that focuses on services such as cloud computing, IT security, data analytics, artificial intelligence, and consulting services.

"If you think you're going to try to game this, and that you're going to tell employees nothing's going to change, and everything's going to be fine, that's just BS," Kavanaugh said in an interview last week.

Kavanaugh noted that, though there is no playbook for how business leaders should communicate disruptive macroeconomic events, such as the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on jobs, the job of a CEO is "to be as transparent as possible and always honest with their employees about where they stand."

With AI, "there's going to be all kinds of changes," Kavanaugh added. "If I could give any advice, it's that everybody should be a student of AI and tech and not be afraid of it."

Even though it's a given AI will impact the workforce, "none of us have it all completely figured out," he said. "If anybody comes in and tells you, 'I can tell you exactly how this is going to impact jobs and how it's going to impact everything we're doing,' they're lying. Because nobody knows."

Kavanaugh stressed that, overall, he's an optimist when it comes to AI's positive impacts and its ability to improve