Mustafa Suleyman, the Microsoft AI chief, said in an interview with the Financial Times that he predicts most, if not every, task in white-collar fields will be automated by AI within the next year or year and a half.

"I think that we're going to have a human-level performance on most, if not all, professional tasks," Suleyman said in the interview that was published Wednesday. "So white-collar work, where you're sitting down at a computer, either being a lawyer or an accountant or a project manager or a marketing person — most of those tasks will be fully automated by an AI within the next 12 to 18 months."

Stuart Russell, a computer scientist who co-authored one of the world's most authoritative books on AI, said in an interview last year that political leaders are looking at "80% unemployment" due to AI, as jobs ranging from surgeons to CEOs are at risk of being replaced.

Dario Amodei, CEO and cofounder of Anthropic, previously said AI could wipe out half of entry-level white-collar jobs.