Fortune by Nick Lichtenberg, September 30, 2026
At this week’s Ford Pro Accelerate event, Verizon CEO Dan Schulman discussed AI’s rapid advancement and workforce implications, predicting AGI within 18 months and a century’s technological progress unfolding over the next decade. Schulman urged corporate leaders and government to prepare for difficult scenarios rather than assume the labor market will naturally adjust.
Verizon last week announced a $70 million initiative offering free AI training to American workers across the country and working with local organizations on career development. “Our responsibility is to think about what might go wrong; what might we need to address; what might the disruption look like; and how do we put guardrails, training, programs in place to minimize that risk,” Schulman advised.