A photo taken on January 2, 2025 shows the letters AI for Artificial Intelligence on a laptop screen (R) next to the logo of the Chat AI application on a smartphone screen in Frankfurt am Main, western Germany. (Photo by Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP) (Photo by KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/AFP via Getty Images)
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Artificial intelligence is changing the way entrepreneurs operate their businesses, employees work, and young people think about their future careers. While much of the public conversation has centered on whether AI will eliminate jobs, that question may be far too simplistic. The more consequential issue may be determining which forms of work will be replaced by technology, which will be enhanced by it, and which distinctly human skills will become even more valuable as artificial intelligence becomes a regularly accepted part of our work process and economy. Franchising looks for opportunities to capitalize on the ever changing technology.
For decades, career stability was often associated with specialization, experience and tenure. An individual could enter a profession, develop expertise, progress through increasingly responsible positions and reasonably expect that experience to provide greater economic security over time. That traditional career model is being challenged. AI can change individual tasks far faster than previous generations of technology, and when enough tasks change, the roles built around them inevitably change as well.
Yet disruption does not necessarily mean swaths of employees will lose their jobs. Instead, retraining and acceptance of the work processes embedded in the new AI workplace will need to take place. In many industries, AI may be far more powerful as an amplifier of human productivity than as a substitute for human capability. That distinction is particularly important in businesses where personal interaction, judgment, trust, physical presence and customer relationships remain fundamental to the experience.
To explore these issues more deeply, we spoke with Tyler Gordon, co-CEO of BaseCamp Franchising, the parent company of resale franchise brands Uptown Cheapskate and Kid to Kid. Gordon offers a thoughtful perspective on how AI could reshape career stability, what younger and mid-career professionals should consider as they navigate the changing employment landscape, and why certain brick-and-mortar and franchise businesses may prove more durable than some occupations that were once considered safe.
Gary Occhiogrosso: As AI is reshaping the workforce conversation, what’s the more nuanced shift you think people are missing about where career stability will actually come from over the next decade?
Tyler Gordon: “Most of the conversation I hear funnels into two camps. In one camp, AI is coming for everything and everyone, and in the other, it’s overblown and simply produces an abundance of sloppy work. The reality is likely somewhere in between and will vary across industries.
The way I’d frame it is that every career path should be evaluated through two lenses. First, to what extent will AI substitute human work in a given career path? Second, to what extent will AI amplify human work in that career path via greater productivity? The answer to each question is almost never “completely” or “not at all”; it’s a matter of degree.
Applying those lenses, four outcomes emerge. The best career paths will be those in which there is a low degree of substitution from AI and a high degree of amplification. These roles aren’t going away, and in fact will become more advantaged by AI adoption. High on both is still a good place to be, because even as pieces get automated, real value accrues to those who remain. Low on both is essentially a non-event, with AI changing little either way. The final combination is the one to avoid: career paths with high substitution and low amplification from AI. These roles tend to be heavy on administrative work with little sophisticated reasoning blended in. If solving for career stability over the next decade, I think the exercise is about steering toward those low-substitution, high-amplification roles. The key question is then: which career paths fit into that quadrant?”
Occhiogrosso: The job market seems to change almost by the minute right now. For someone trying to map out a career five or ten years from now, how do you even define a stable path anymore?
Gordon: “For most of the last century, career stability meant choosing one field, going deep, and climbing a predictable ladder. The pace of change for individual roles was slow, so people could confidently map out their trajectory at one company over thirty years. AI is significantly increasing the pace of change for how individual tasks are completed and therefore how those tasks are organized into roles. Moving forward, it’s increasingly important to pick industries and roles where AI enhances human productivity rather than replaces it, which goes back to our framework from earlier.
Even more critical is being highly adaptable to change. Developing career stability means investing in transferable skills like writing and sales that apply across industries. It also favors interpersonal skills and public speaking ability. And of course, it’s vital to develop fluency with AI tools. Beyond those hard skills, you also need to have mental flexibility to shift with conditions. You don’t want to become an expert in something that quietly gets commoditized while you aren’t watching.”
How AI Affects Recent Graduates
Occhiogrosso: Recent graduates are entering one of the most unpredictable markets in years. Do you think many of them would be better served in in-person, customer-facing roles, and why would interpersonal skills and EQ become more valuable as AI adoption accelerates?
Gordon “Absolutely. People will always value genuine human interaction no matter how capable technology becomes. In fact, I believe the premium on authentic interpersonal interaction will increase as technology seeps deeper into our everyday lives.
Customers want to be greeted, understood, and helped by another human, and AI has a hard time delivering those experiences convincingly. In the new paradigm, interpersonal skills and “EQ”, including the ability to read a room, build trust, and navigate emotion, become the scarce commodities.
That’s why I believe customer-facing roles should be much more than a fallback for new graduates. A role that strengthens one’s ability to sell, lead, and win people over is front-loading the most durable, transferable skills a young person can develop.”
Occhiogrosso: Are you seeing different reactions to this moment from younger workers just starting out versus mid-career professionals who are rethinking the path they’re already on? How do those two responses look different in practice?
Gordon: “Uncertainty is intimidating regardless of your age. What’s different is that younger workers have time on their side. They can experiment, retrain, and change direction without having staked decades on a single track. As a result, they are more accepting of change.
Mid-career professionals, however, face a different challenge. Many have built a deep identity and skill base around the pre-AI paradigm. When those hard-won skills start to become less valuable, adaptation feels more like loss than growth. The sunk cost of decades spent building experience in a particular way creates a natural pull to defend the existing playbook, which is potentially the most dangerous instinct to have right now.”
The Opportunity Cost Of Staying In A Traditional Career
Occhiogrosso: For experienced corporate professionals, what do you think is driving some of them to question long-term career paths and, in some cases, look toward entrepreneurship?
Gordon “I’d argue that the aspiration to ‘build something of your own’ was always there for many people. What was lacking was a catalyst, especially for people whose careers felt safe and predictable. In that context, AI has been an accelerant, pushing daydreams into action.
The opportunity cost of staying in a traditional career has meaningfully dropped. For a long time, the operating assumption was that if you worked hard, you would do well. That trade felt both reliable and fair. Today, you can do everything right and still watch your role, or your entire functional area, fundamentally change or even disappear. The result is not only greater uncertainty, it’s uncertainty out of your control.
For many people, entrepreneurship is the most direct way to take back control. In a lot of cases, the entrepreneurial drive was always simmering. Recent developments simply turned up the heat.”
CHINA – 2023/11/03: In this photo illustration, the American sandwich fast food restaurant franchise Subway logo seen displayed on a smartphone with an Artificial intelligence (AI) chip and symbol in the background. (Photo Illustration by Budrul Chukrut/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Occhiogrosso: Could franchising and brick-and-mortar businesses serve as a kind of hedge against AI disruption, even if they aren’t fully immune to it? What would make them more durable than the white-collar roles people have long considered safe?
Gordon: “In my view, franchising and brick-and-mortar businesses can definitely serve as a hedge against AI disruption, with two important caveats.
The first is that not all franchise concepts are created equal. You have to underwrite the fundamentals of the specific business, applying both the AI lens and a broader set of criteria. Focusing on AI, durable concepts tend to share a common profile. The goods or services that the business provides are delivered in a specific location, by people, to people, all of which is very hard to automate. Many of these businesses should also benefit greatly from AI on the backend. Data analytics across dozens or hundreds of locations can sharpen the operation behind the scenes, driving down costs and/or enhancing the customer experience.
The second caveat is that there is no cheat code to success. Even in a franchise concept that’s well-positioned relative to AI, the most important differentiator is still hard work. We like to tell our franchisees that success comes down to three words: humility, agency, and resilience. Franchising can be a real hedge, but only when you pair the right concept with the right operator.
Occhiogrosso: Could AI disruption actually make hiring easier for service-based businesses? Where would that talent come from?
Gordon: “I think it could, for two reasons. The first is a wider talent pool. As AI thins out entry-level white-collar openings, a cohort of capable, ambitious people who once flowed automatically toward analyst and coordinator roles has to find a home somewhere else. Service roles are a natural destination. The talent isn’t new so much as redirected. The second reason is that the jobs themselves are becoming more well-defined. The same data and tools that drive backend efficiency also let operators more effectively structure roles, standardize training, and spell out exactly what good execution looks like.
Put those two dynamics together and hiring shifts in a productive way. When you’re able to very clearly define roles and responsibilities and pair those with excellent training resources, you no longer need to hire someone with years of experience. You can hire for personality traits instead: attitude, work ethic, and coachability, and train the rest. That shift has certainly benefited our stores, where the right disposition behind the counter matters far more than a polished resume.”
Occhiogrosso: Should families feel a real sense of unease about the future job landscape? If so, what do you want parents and new graduates to take from that, and what would you tell them to do with the concern?
Gordon: “Unfortunately, I think parents should have a sense of unease, at least to a degree. I’m a parent of two boys myself, so this isn’t an abstract question for me. While anxiety isn’t pleasant, it can be helpful if it drives preparation. In that context, there are steps any parent can take to help their children prepare for the future.
First, if you’re a new graduate, be thoughtful about the sandbox you choose, because the field you step into matters more than it used to. Second, embrace AI – it’s not going anywhere, and proficiency will increasingly become table stakes. And third, focus on the intangibles, the qualities AI will have the hardest time touching. Outwork the person next to you, stay humble, stay intellectually curious, and develop authentic interpersonal skills. Those attributes have always carried people far, and they may be even more decisive in this environment.”
Opportunity Requires Being Nimble
Occhiogrosso: What does career stability realistically look like in an AI-driven economy, and what does it come down to for the next generation of workers and the people advising them?
Gordon: “Realistically, stability is no longer a destination you arrive at. It is something you earn continuously by adapting. In most pockets of the economy, you can no longer keep your head down, work hard at the same tasks for twenty years, and assume that approach will carry you to success. Hard work still matters enormously, but it is no longer a strategy on its own.
Ironically, stability now entails staying flexible and always looking for a better, more efficient way to work, including by leveraging new tools at your disposal. For the people advising the next generation, it’s important not to insist on implementing the old playbook. The safe, single-lane path that used to be taught may not exist by the time a young person reaches the job market.
I’d end on an optimistic note. Much like the industrial revolution, AI represents an enormous opportunity, not just a threat. Capturing that opportunity requires being nimble and forward-looking rather than clinging to the tactics that worked yesterday. The people who come out ahead will be the ones who view constant change as exciting rather than terrifying. More than any specific skill or credential, success is a matter of mindset, and mindset is something you can choose.”
The Future of Stability May Be Adaptability
Tyler Gordon’s observations led me to lean into an important reframing of the AI debate. Career stability may no longer be primarily about finding an occupation that remains unchanged. I believe it comes from choosing environments where technology elevates and improves rather than eliminates human contribution, while continually developing skills that remain transferable as individual jobs evolve.
There is also an important lesson here for the franchise community. Brick-and-mortar and service-oriented businesses should not assume they are protected from technological disruption simply because they require physical locations or employees. Every concept must still be evaluated on its economics, competitive positioning, consumer relevance and ability to evolve. However, businesses built around human interaction, local service, judgment and physical experiences may possess characteristics that are inherently more difficult to digitize or automate completely.
At the same time, AI can become an extraordinary operating advantage for those businesses. Better analytics, smarter inventory management, improved training, more sophisticated marketing and more efficient administrative systems can allow technology to strengthen the business behind the scenes without eliminating the human experience customers value in front of the house.
Perhaps the most important takeaway is that the future does not necessarily belong to humans or artificial intelligence. It may belong to people and organizations that learn how to combine the two intelligently.
For employees, that means remaining adaptable, developing interpersonal abilities, and learning how to use AI rather than ignoring it. For entrepreneurs and franchise operators, it means selecting businesses with sound fundamentals while continuously seeking ways technology can improve productivity without diminishing the customer relationship. For parents and young people entering the workforce, it means recognizing that flexibility, curiosity, communication and resilience may ultimately prove more durable than any single credential or technical skill.
Our sincere thanks to Tyler Gordon, co-CEO of BaseCamp Franchising, for taking the time to share his insights and perspective on Franchising regarding this rapidly evolving issue. His comments provide valuable food for thought not only for those considering where the workforce is headed, but also for business owners, franchisors, franchisees, and aspiring entrepreneurs trying to understand where opportunity may emerge as artificial intelligence continues to reshape the economy.
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