The AI skills gap is here, says AI company, and power users are pulling ahead

Anthropic's fifth economic impact report, released Tuesday, finds that while AI is rapidly changing work, it hasn't meaningfully eliminated jobs—at least not yet.

Peter McCrory, Anthropic's head of economics, told TechCrunch at the Axios AI Summit in Washington, D.C. that there's "no material difference in unemployment rates" between workers who use Claude for central job tasks and those in less AI-exposed roles requiring physical interaction.

However, the report reveals a growing skills gap between early Claude adopters and newcomers. Earlier adopters get "significantly more value" from the model, using it as a "thought partner" for iteration and feedback rather than for casual purposes.

McCrory noted that displacement effects "could materialize very quickly," emphasizing the importance of establishing monitoring frameworks to identify appropriate policy responses.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has predicted AI could "wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs" and push unemployment as high as 20% within the next five years.

The report found geographic disparities: "Claude is used more intensely in high-income countries, within the U.S. in places with more knowledge workers." This suggests AI adoption may be amplifying advantages for wealthy users.

McCrory said AI is becoming a technology that rewards those who already know how to use it, with workers who effectively incorporate it gaining an increasing edge.