May 6, 2026
A professor at New York University Stern School of Business says your take on AI might have less to do with the technology itself and everything to do with how much you earn.
Speaking on The Diary of a CEO (1) with host Steven Bartlett, Scott Galloway said there's a clear income divide in how Americans view AI: those earning over $200,000 are the only group consistently optimistic about it.
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"Your view of AI is directly correlated to your wealth," he said.
According to Galloway, higher earners tend to see AI as a tailwind for innovation and for markets like the S&P 500, while middle-income Americans are more likely to experience it as a cost driver that threatens job opportunities.
"If you're an average middle class person, what you may see is that your electricity bills have gone up and you don't even have access to invest in these companies," he added.
The income line dividing AI optimism
A recent Pew Research Center (2) survey found that 52% of employees are worried about AI's impact on the workplace, while 32% believe it could reduce their job opportunities over the long term. Still, Galloway argues that the long-term picture may be more nuanced.
"I believe over the medium and long term it's actually going to create more jobs than it destroys," he said as Bartlett pushed back on whether that optimism could be misplaced.
Galloway acknowledged the uncertainty, but pointed to a growing body of evidence suggesting AI is more likely to reshape jobs than eliminate them entirely.
For example, radiology. Once seen as one of the most at-risk fields — with AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton (3) warning in 2016 that the profession could become obsolete — demand has instead grown. Reading scans is only part of the role. Diagnosing disease, consulting with clinicians and guiding patient care still rely heavily on human judgment.
By speeding up image analysis, AI is allowing radiologists to handle more cases and focus on higher-value work, increasing demand rather than replacing it.
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Where the fear and the hype are coming from
Part of the divide in how Americans view AI may come down to how it shows up in their day-to-day work.
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Research from McKinsey & Company (4) suggests that by 2030, up to 30% of hours worked across the U.S. economy could be automated, with generative AI reshaping many roles. But the impact won't be evenly felt: roughly 12 million workers may need to change occupations by the end of the decade, with those in lower-wage jobs up to 14 times more likely to do so than top earners.
That helps explain the split reaction: for some, AI threatens jobs and earnings; for others, it's a source of upside. The divide sharpens when you look at who benefits. The top 10% (5) of U.S. households own most stocks, so when AI lifts markets like the S&P 500, the gains largely flow to those already well off.
Galloway argues the narrative is also shaped by incentives at the top, with executives "catastrophizing" to drive investment as billions pour into AI. AI-related firms now make up roughly 45% of the S&P 500's value — up since the launch of ChatGPT in 2022.
Reshaping the market
Undoubtedly, AI is already reshaping how work gets done. Even Bartlett is building it directly into his business.
At his media company FlightStory (6), AI is being used to expand content into new markets at a fraction of the usual cost. The team has been using it to translate episodes of The Diary of a CEO into different languages, opening the door to entirely new audiences. The Spanish version alone has pulled in more than 20 million extra views and roughly $200,000 in indirect ad revenue on YouTube, Christiana Brenton, the company's cofounder and CRO told Business Insider (7).
As the technology evolves, the nature of work is shifting alongside it and that shift can feel unsettling. Galloway acknowledges that the benefits of AI are likely to accrue first to those who already have access to capital and tools.
But he also points to a more pragmatic reality: AI isn't just replacing work, it's reshaping it. Workers who learn to use these tools can compound their advantage by becoming more productive, more valuable and harder to replace.
Article Sources
We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our ethics and guidelines.
YouTube (1); Pew Research Center (2); Forbes (3); McKinsey & Company (4); CorpGov (5); FlightStory (6); Business Insider (7)
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Victoria Vesovski is a Toronto-based staff reporter at Moneywise covering personal finance, lifestyle and trending news. She holds degrees from the University of Toronto and New York University, and her work has appeared on platforms including Yahoo Finance, MSN Money and Apple News.
