Vista CEO Says AI to Force 60% of SuperReturn Crowd to Seek Work

June 5, 2025

Vista Equity Partners’ Chief Executive Officer Robert F. Smith said he expects AI to have a seismic impact on jobs in the private market industry.

“We think that next year, 40% of the people at this conference will have an AI agent and the remaining 60% will be looking for work,” the company’s founder said in comments on Thursday at the SuperReturn International private capital conference in Berlin.

Thousands of private markets professionals have descended on Berlin for the annual event to discuss the biggest topics affecting their industry. Artificial intelligence has dominated conversations as firms look to create value in their portfolio companies.

“There are 1 billion knowledge workers on the planet today and all of those jobs will change,” Smith said, speaking about the impact of AI. “I’m not saying they’ll all go away, but they will all change.”

Vista, an investment firm with over $100 billion in assets under management, specializes in enterprise software, data and tech-driven businesses.

Earlier this year, Bloomberg Intelligence released a report suggesting global banks will cut as many as 200,000 jobs in the next three to five years as artificial intelligence encroaches on tasks currently carried out by human workers.

“You will have hyper productive people in organizations and you will have people who will need to find other things to do,” Smith said.

Productivity Impact

Others are cautious about predictions of large scale job changes as a result of AI.

Orlando Bravo, founder of private equity firm Thoma Bravo, was asked about comments by the Chief Executive Officer of AI firm Anthropic. Dario Amodei recently warned that AI could wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs in the next few years.

“It’s a very futuristic point of view,” Bravo said in an interview on Bloomberg Television on the fringes of the conference. “But I think it will make white collar jobs more productive and people a lot smarter. I use ChatGPT and all kind of models all the time. I said, hey write me a paper on this topic, and then I can think more thoughtfully and more deeply about that topic and improve it.”

Companies, and not just individuals, are at risk from the disruptive impact of the technology, particularly software technology firms, according to Marathon Asset Management CEO and founder Bruce Richards.

Those that can’t make the artificial-intelligence transition face a “Blockbuster Video moment,” he told Bloomberg Television on Tuesday, referring to the home video rental chain that lost out to streaming services and filed for bankruptcy.

“Not all those companies will make the AI adjustment and there will be creative destruction that comes their way,” he said.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5733721&forum_id=2#48989190)

A bold prediction!

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5733721&forum_id=2#48989321)

i.e. a handful of people will work 80 hours a week and make shit tons of money and the rest of you will be unemployed. also 90% of the gains will go to people who are already well established.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5733721&forum_id=2#48989333)