Future Ready Leadership With Jacob Morgan

I talk with Gary Schick, SVP and Chief Human Resource Officer at Jabil, about how a 60 year old manufacturing company is navigating massive change as they scale from circuit boards to data centers, AI agents, and advanced manufacturing. We get into why Jabil targeted gamers to fill debugger roles when traditional hiring failed, how visual inspection jobs are being automated with AI cameras, what happens when you move from manual work to managing AI agents, and why skills based hiring is replacing degree requirements. Gary shares how Jabil is building its own university model in partnership with local institutions, why manufacturing jobs are no longer a dirty word, and how leaders need to balance managing both humans and agents while pulling out human judgment that AI can't replicate.

• 00:00:00 Meet Gary Schick and inside Jabil's 140,000-employee manufacturing empire
• 00:03:46 Why data centers are exploding and the myths around energy, water, and community impact
• 00:07:47 AI transformation at Jabil: from Copilot experiments to AI agents on the factory floor
• 00:11:02 Visual inspection, supply chain automation, and where AI is replacing repetitive work
• 00:12:58 What happens to displaced workers: upskilling, redeployment, and the Jabil University approach
• 00:20:51 Skills beat degrees: how gamers solved Jabil's hiring crisis and the debugger story
• 00:24:01 Building Jabil University: partnering with local schools to create custom curriculum
• 00:25:15 Manufacturing's comeback, the trades shortage, and why college might not be the answer
• 00:36:32 Will HR disappear? Managing AI agents, human prompting, and the future of leadership
• 00:39:44 AI agents as personal assistants: the Muse story and negotiating bills while you sleep
• 00:43:33 Agent-to-agent customer service and what happens when humans leave the loop
• 00:47:42 Fake candidates, perfect resumes, and the new hiring challenges in an AI world

October 2, 2026: I unpack two revealing 2% numbers that tell us where AI actually stands today. Only 2% of American households pay for any AI service, and only 2% of the S&P 500 track hard metrics showing what AI does for their business. Yet tech produced 76% of all earnings growth this year, and the most valuable companies on earth are riding on a technology almost nobody pays for and nobody measures. I explore why AI is creating real value off the books, why the business model hasn't been figured out yet, and who's going to win when someone finally captures the moment where a decision turns into a transaction. Then I get into The Atlantic's argument that next year's high school graduates should consider becoming bricklayers, why the college wage premium has dropped 10% since ChatGPT launched, and the third path nobody's talking about that sits between trades and traditional degrees. Finally, I break down The New Yorker's piece on the 90-10 production function, why AI gets you to 90% great in minutes but leaves you stuck short of excellence, and why the last 10% is where your career is about to be decided.

• 00:00:00 AI's invisible value problem: why only 2% of households pay for AI
• 00:02:30 A16Z's State of Markets: tech becomes the everything cycle
• 00:11:17 Who will own the tollbooth when AI decisions become transactions
• 00:13:35 The Atlantic says become a bricklayer: why trades are booming
• 00:20:04 The entrepreneurship revolution: curiosity and imagination over credentials
• 00:23:26 The New Yorker's 90-10 problem: AI gets you 90% there in minutes
• 00:26:46 When every deliverable looks amazing, how do you spot talent?
• 00:31:06 The apprenticeship solution: why white-collar work needs structured mentorship

September 30, 2026: I unpack my experience using Muse, Meta's new AI assistant that actually negotiated my phone bill, lowered my internet costs, and found me discounts without me writing a single prompt. This feels fundamentally different from ChatGPT and Claude because it acts like a true personal assistant, not just a research tool. I explore what happens when every employee inside your organization gets one of these capable agentic assistants, why everyone is about to become a manager whether they have the title or not, and the coming fight over what managing AI agents is actually worth in compensation. Then I get into the leaked Anthropic IPO numbers showing a path to $2 trillion valuation on $100 billion in revenue, and why their prospectus warns investors about existential risk while asking for that valuation. Finally, I break down Anthropic's new research claiming robots can perform 74% of physical work, why that number is misleading, and why breaking jobs into task lists completely misses how work actually happens.

I talk with Jill Penrose, Chief People & Administrative Officer and Chief of Staff at The J.M. Smucker Co., about why the Chief of Staff role is becoming so important as leaders deal with more complexity and change. We get into how Smucker connects strategy, people, and culture, how AI is changing consumer behavior and the employee experience, why leaders need to be honest about AI uncertainty, and how the company is looking beyond productivity to find where AI can create differentiated business value.

September 25, 2026: I unpack new Harris Poll data showing young people are developing surprisingly emotional relationships with AI, including feeling guilty when they ignore chatbot advice and even reporting romantic relationships with AI. Then I get into Microsoft's major Copilot rebuild around chat, cowork, code, and autonomous digital teammates, and what happens when employees effectively become managers of AI agents. Finally, I break down the viral debate over bringing iced coffee to a job interview and why it says something bigger about workplace etiquette and the balance of power between employers and candidates.

September 23, 2026: I unpack Bernie Sanders and Greg Casar's proposal to ban artificial superintelligence, pause advanced AI development, and impose prison sentences of up to 20 years for violations. Then I look at how millions of employees are quietly becoming managers of AI agents without the title or pay. Finally, I get into Andreessen Horowitz's new AI academy for young people who may want to skip college and build instead.

September 18, 2026: I look at the viral LinkedIn profile of Home Depot executive Anne Marie Campbell and why her rise from cashier to senior executive says something important about effort, loyalty, and firm-specific knowledge. Then I get into the Wall Street Journal's warning that the purge of middle managers could backfire as companies underestimate coaching, sponsorship, and tacit knowledge. I also unpack how researchers used Anthropic's Claude to break into OpenAI through a bug bounty program. Finally, I break down OpenAI's recent "misalignment" example involving compaction summaries and why some of these scary AI moments may be glitches, not signs of sentience.

September 16, 2026: I look at Anthropic's push for independent AI evaluators and why its preferred watchdog, METR, raises questions about conflicts, trust, and regulatory capture. Then I get into why "be your authentic self" may be terrible career advice and why the better advice is to be your best professional self. Finally, I unpack Mark Zuckerberg's argument that lawsuits, customers, competition, and trust may do more to keep AI companies careful than a forced industry slowdown.

September 14, 2026: I look at Dario Amodei's essay arguing that frontier AI needs to slow down and why competitors publicly agreeing with him raises bigger questions about safety, regulation, IPO timing, and regulatory capture. Then I get into reports of more Oracle layoffs and why this may be less about AI replacing people and more about companies funding massive AI infrastructure. Finally, I unpack why civic education is becoming a workforce readiness issue, especially when so many leaders say entry-level hires are not prepared for work.

September 11, 2026: I look at The Economist's analysis showing AI has created roughly 1 million American jobs so far, while the predicted jobs apocalypse still has not arrived. Then I get into the latest PISA results showing record-low math, reading, and science scores, and why attention, critical thinking, and family involvement matter for the future workforce. Finally, I unpack the latest backlash around Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon's viral resignation, the AI extinction narrative, regulatory capture, and why leaders need evidence before buying into panic.