Uber founder Travis Kalanick claims automation will increase the value of human labor amid concerns over AI job losses.

Travis Kalanick believes that the rapid rise of artificial intelligence could increase the value of human labour rather than eliminate it, arguing that workers may become more important in areas where machines are unable to fully replace people.

Speaking on the TBPN Podcast, Kalanick said automation can create new economic dynamics where the remaining human roles become the biggest constraint to progress. When most tasks are handled by machines, the jobs still performed by humans may turn into the most valuable parts of the system.

To explain the idea, Kalanick used a hypothetical example in which machines automate nearly everything. In such a world, buildings could be constructed by machines, manufacturing handled by robots and logistics run autonomously. However, if plumbing still required human workers, plumbers would become the limiting factor in construction.

He argued that if machines could build around a thousand buildings per day but plumbing still required human workers, those workers would become extremely valuable because every building would depend on them. According to Kalanick, in such a situation plumbers could become as valuable in their field as superstar athletes because they would be the key constraint preventing further expansion.

Kalanick suggested that the same principle could apply to several industries as artificial intelligence increases productivity and reduces costs. As automation improves efficiency across sectors, demand for certain human roles that complement machines may rise significantly.

He pointed to autonomous mobility as an example. Companies such as Waymo already use human supervisors to monitor fleets of self-driving vehicles. Over time, the number of vehicles supervised by one person could grow from just a few cars to hundreds or even thousands, but the overall expansion of autonomous fleets could still require a large number of human oversight roles.

However, Kalanick also acknowledged that this dynamic may only last until artificial intelligence becomes advanced enough to replace humans across almost all tasks. He referred to this stage as super artificial general intelligence, where machines would match or surpass human capabilities in nearly every field.

Until such technology emerges, he argued that humans will continue to play a crucial role in economic growth by filling the gaps where automation cannot yet operate effectively. According to Kalanick, these gaps could make human workers increasingly valuable as technological progress accelerates.

Kalanick has recently rebranded his startup City Storage Systems, which owns CloudKitchens, into a new venture called Atoms. The company is expanding its focus beyond food infrastructure to include robotics, mining and transportation technologies.