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Gen Z is walking into a job market that artificial intelligence is already reshaping, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says the shake-up is only getting started.

His advice for young workers is to stop chasing yesterday’s dream jobs and start betting on what comes next.

That message landed with a jab at some of the country’s most ambitious students. It also comes as entry-level hiring has fallen sharply at big tech firms, leaving many new graduates with fewer obvious paths in.

Altman expresses his “chronic disappointment” with MBA students

Altman made his remarks in an interview released on Oct. 21 as part of Stanford GSB’s “View From The Top” series, where MBA student Claudia Chen asked him about AI and the future of work, according to Stanford Graduate School of Business.

“It’s totally true that huge numbers of tasks that people do today will be done better, cheaper, and faster by AI, and completely differently,” he said.

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He went further. Altman said “wide swaths” of today’s jobs, at least as they’re done now, will be handled entirely by AI, as Fortune reported. But he also cautioned that the transformation won’t happen as quickly as many people expect. That slower timeline matters for anyone planning a career around the change.

Then came the line that grabbed headlines. “My chronic disappointment with MBA students is that they always want to go do the thing that was cool five years ago rather than try something new,” Altman said, adding, “I think this is a great time to go do the new thing.”

His frustration speaks to a real tension for young workers. Companies that adopted generative AI cut junior employment by about 7.7% within six quarters, while senior jobs held steady, according to a Harvard working paper.

The safe, well-worn career path may not be as safe as it looks.

Why Altman thinks the jobs playing field is wide open

For Altman, the upside goes beyond standing out in a tough job market. He believes AI could make it possible to build companies that would have been hard or impossible just a few years ago.

“There are many companies that can be built on top of the technology OpenAI has put out into the world that will be much bigger and, I hope, more important than OpenAI,” he said, according to Fortune.

He speaks from experience. Altman left Stanford, where he studied computer science, to cofound the location-sharing app Loopt, which launched in 2005 and was later bought by Green Dot for $43.4 million, as TheStreet reported.

He later became president of startup accelerator Y Combinator in 2014 and stepped down in 2019 to focus on OpenAI.

That background shapes how he sees the moment. “If you’re heading into the world right now to work on something, I think you want to start your career at a time of the greatest change, when the playing field is most open,” Altman told the Stanford audience.

Altman added during the same conversation that “people with high potential, drive, ideas, a new way of looking at things, and new skills tend to do relatively well when the ground is shaking the most.”

In other words, he thinks disruption tends to reward people who are willing to move first. That’s easier said than done for graduates carrying student loans, but it’s the core of his pitch to a new generation of founders.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s advice for young workers is to stop chasing yesterday’s dream jobs and start betting on what comes next.Luis Alvarez / Getty Images

More young Americans are taking the entrepreneurship leap

Plenty of people seem to agree. Americans filed 5.7 million applications to start new businesses in 2025, a record high for the decade analyzed, based on Census Bureau data.

Gen Z stands out, with 51% saying they had seriously considered starting a business in the past 12 months, compared with 27% of all Americans surveyed.

That itch hasn’t gone away in 2026. Americans filed roughly 535,000 business applications in September alone, a little more than in August after seasonal adjustments, according to the Census Bureau.

It seems that in a year packed with layoff headlines and AI anxiety, plenty of people are still betting on themselves.

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Other well-known founders have made a similar pitch. Billionaire investor Mark Cuban has urged entrepreneurs to spend “every waking minute learning about AI,” arguing that “whatever skills you have, you can use AI to amplify them.”

There’s a catch, though. When Goldman Sachs studied employment across more than 800 occupations, it found the drag from AI landed hardest on people at the very start of their careers, TheStreet reported.

U.S. call-center jobs alone were running 39% below their long-run trend. So the same technology Altman sees as a launchpad is also making that first rung harder to reach.

What it means for young workers

Recent graduates have run straight into that wall. The New York Fed’s numbers show unemployment for college grads aged 22 to 27 at 5.6%, according to TheStreet.

And layoffs aren’t really the main story. In a June GMAC survey, one in three employers said they had used AI to cover some entry-level work instead of hiring someone new. Clearly, a lot of first jobs are quietly disappearing.

That doesn’t mean everyone should drop out and launch a startup. Altman himself said he doesn’t expect a job apocalypse, even as many tasks and some kinds of jobs change.

The bigger takeaway is about mindset.

Altman’s warning isn’t really about MBA students alone. It’s that the jobs that looked cool five years ago may not be the ones that pay off five years from now, and the people who adapt early could have the most to gain.

Related: Nvidia is set to challenge Anthropic and OpenAI with a new product

For years, TJ Maxx and Marshalls have pulled in more bargain-hunting shoppers than Ross Stores. However, that may be starting to change.

On Oct. 26, UBS said a new strategy under CEO James Conroy could finally help Ross catch up to its biggest rival. Because of that, the firm upgraded Ross Stores (ROST) from Neutral to Buy and raised its price target to $315 from $239. 

If you are not familiar with Ross, the company sells items under two brands, Ross Dress for Less and dd’s DISCOUNTS. The company buys extra inventory from brands and vendors at low prices, then resells them at even lower prices than regular retail.

What UBS analysts see in the stock

Ross wants its sales to catch up to its rival, and last year, the company got a new CEO to help achieve that goal.

Back in 2017, Ross and TJX made roughly the same amount of sales per square foot of store space. However, by the end of 2025, TJX’s number had increased by 44%, while Ross’s had grown by just 24%, TradingView reported.

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However, UBS analyst Jay Sole thinks investors are underestimating how fast Ross’s latest CEO can close that distance. “We think the market doesn’t appreciate how much ROST closing this gap will drive comp growth in FY27 and beyond,” Sole wrote.

He believes that with the CEO’s plans, Ross should grow its sales by about 8.5% per year over the next two years, about 260 basis points above what Wall Street generally expects.

Ross Stores is trying to narrow its sales-per-store gap with TJ Maxx under CEO James Conroy.slobo / Getty Images

How Ross Stores CEO James Conroy plans to turn things around

Conroy became Ross’s CEO on Feb. 2, 2025. Before he took on the chief executive role, he was in charge of Boot Barn, a company he grew from a mid-sized western-wear chain into a national name. Now he plans to help Ross improve its sales.

The first way he plans to do that is by getting better merchandise. Ross is adding more recognizable brands and a steadier mix of “good, better, and best products” to its lineup. Investing.com reported that this shift has already boosted the sales of women’s apparel.

Related: Levi’s CEO admits the company missed the biggest jeans trend of the year

The CEO is also focusing more on marketing, and Sole said the marketing shift is “probably the one most underappreciated by the market.”

He noted that Ross used to spend only 0.4% of sales on ads, while TJX spent 1.1%. However, Conroy is investing more in social media and streaming ads to attract younger shoppers.

In addition, the company is paying more attention to the stores themselves, including things like faster checkout and cleaner aisles. It even moved more staff from back rooms to the sales floor.

Why value shoppers keep picking discount stores

A UBS Evidence Lab survey found that 79% of U.S. consumers say value for money is the main reason they pick a retailer, Yahoo Finance reported.

And with the current economic situation, every dollar matters.

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According to the National Retail Federation, discount stores rank as one of the top destinations for 2026 holiday shopping.

And because the price tag at Ross is 20% to 60% below the department-store average, Ross should keep pulling in shoppers looking to cut costs compared with pricier chains such as Macy’s and Kohl’s.

What to consider before buying ROST stock

Ross’s sales grew well from the second half of 2025 into the first half of 2026. However, sales growth usually slows down after a company experiences a big year. That means it might be hard for Ross to get better numbers than it did during this period.

Also, I believe that if diesel prices keep climbing due to the war in the Middle East, Ross will have to spend more to move goods from suppliers to its stores, which will affect its profits. 

Even with those risks, UBS sees ROST increasing by about 37% from its Oct. 23 close of $229.30. In addition, the stock already trades near 26 times forward earnings for fiscal 2026, which means a lot of the good news is already priced in.

So if you’re thinking of buying the stock, it might be better to wait for a pullback, or at least the next earnings report in late November, to get a better entry point.

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Most people don’t buy Windows. They buy a laptop, and Windows comes with it.

That’s why Microsoft’s Windows numbers are really a read on the PC market. When people buy computers, Microsoft gets paid by the companies that make them.

For decades, that was the heart of the business. Today it’s a much smaller piece, and it’s shrinking.

You may have noticed why if you’ve shopped for a laptop lately. Prices have been creeping up as the memory chips inside them get more expensive.

A few hundred dollars on a new computer is easy to put off. When millions of buyers make the same choice, it shows up in a company’s results.

Now Microsoft’s own results show how much that is costing the company.

Windows sales to PC makers dropped sharply

Microsoft (MSFT) said revenue from Windows OEM and devices fell 22% in its fiscal first quarter, which ended Sept. 30, according to its earnings release.

OEMs, or original equipment manufacturers, are the companies, such as HP (HPQ) and Dell (DELL), that install Windows on new computers.

Gaming slipped, too. Xbox content and services revenue fell by 2%.

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Overall, Microsoft’s Devices and Consumer segment brought in $15.5 billion, down 3% from a year earlier.

Not every consumer business is shrinking. Microsoft 365 consumer cloud revenue, which includes paid subscriptions for apps such as Word and Excel, rose 17%.

That suggests people are still willing to pay monthly for software. They are just keeping the computers they already own.

Microsoft’s Windows sales fell 22% as memory costs lifted PC prices, while Azure grew 48%.Jeff Greenberg / Getty Images

Why fewer people are buying new PCs

Microsoft saw this coming.

In April, Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood said part of an expected Windows decline would come “from a lower PC market as prices increase due to memory cost,” Yahoo Finance reported.

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She also pointed to a tough comparison. The year-earlier period “benefited from Windows 10 end of support,” when many people upgraded old computers at once, Hood said.

In plain terms, last year’s upgrade rush is over, and this year’s PCs cost more. Both push sales down.

Microsoft’s AI business is now the whole story

The rest of Microsoft looks very different.

Revenue rose 19% to $92.3 billion, and earnings per share rose 18% to $4.89 on an adjusted basis. Analysts had expected $4.72 per share on $90.75 billion in revenue, according to 24/7 Wall St.

Microsoft Cloud revenue rose 30% to $63.9 billion. Azure, its cloud computing platform, grew 48%, ahead of the roughly 45% investors were watching for.

Here is how the two halves of Microsoft compare, according to the release:

Agents and Infra segment: $76.8 billion in revenue, up 25%

Devices and Consumer segment: $15.5 billion, down 3%

Windows OEM and devices: Down 22%

Xbox content and services: Down 2%

Commercial backlog: $677 billion, up 73%

By my math, the Agents and Infra segment now accounts for about 83% of Microsoft’s revenue.

“Results exceeded expectations across revenue, operating income, and earnings per share,” Hood said in the release.

“We are delivering greater capability, choice, control, and cost efficiency for customers across our entire stack,” CEO Satya Nadella said.

The headline numbers also got a small lift from OpenAI. Microsoft’s reported earnings of $4.92 a share included a $207 million net gain tied to its OpenAI investment, compared with a $3.1 billion net loss a year earlier.

The AI bill keeps getting bigger

That growth isn’t cheap.

Microsoft spent $39.4 billion on property and equipment in the quarter, roughly double the $19.4 billion it spent a year earlier, the release showed. Most of that goes to data centers and AI chips.

Before the report, investors expected quarterly capital spending above $50 billion once leases are included, 24/7 Wall St reported. Shares rose about 4% in after-hours trading as investors focused on Azure.

Shopping for a laptop costs more now

If you’re shopping for a laptop, expect to pay more than you did a year or two ago. Memory chip costs are being passed on to buyers.

Here’s how to keep the cost down:

Buy last year’s model. Discounted older stock may still have pre-increase pricing.

Check the memory you actually need. Paying for extra RAM costs more than it used to.

Watch holiday sales. PC makers often discount around Black Friday to clear inventory.

Don’t upgrade just for AI features. Many AI tools run in the cloud on the computer you already own.

Microsoft investors are focused on Azure

If you own Microsoft, the Windows slump barely moves the needle. The stock now trades on Azure and AI demand.

The shares were trading around $527.75 before the report. A 4% after-hours gain would still leave investors watching whether Azure can stay this strong while spending doubles.

I’d still watch the consumer side. It’s the part of Microsoft most exposed to everyday spending, and it’s shrinking while the AI bill grows.

Microsoft is betting that cloud customers will keep paying more than enough to cover that bill. For now, they are.

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As consumers, we have become accustomed to paying more for the same products in different cities, and even at different locations within the same city. We might cite reasons like taxes, timing, or surge pricing, then forget about it and go on with our lives.

I always end up booking the Uber through my account because it somehow shows me lower prices than my husband for the same trip. It may be a serious matter, but we always shrug it off with a joke.

However, a recent development by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is bound to make consumers like you and me think twice about a price discrepancy the next time we encounter one.

On Oct. 28, the FTC demanded information from nine major companies to study how prices are set and whether factors like loyalty programs, browsing history, and personal data influence what individuals pay.

The companies receiving the orders are:

Walmart

DoorDash

Instacart

Target

Uber

Lyft

Delta

United

JetBlue

These nine names cover several major consumer-facing industries, from groceries and retail to transportation and travel.

But the underlying question remains: Does your screen look the same as mine when it comes to pricing?

FTC questions Walmart, Target, Uber over personalized pricing

The FTC inquiry seeks to uncover the methods these companies use to set prices and encourage greater transparency for consumers and workers alike.

The nine companies have 45 days from the date they receive the orders to submit detailed information. If they fail to comply, the FTC has the authority to seek a federal court order compelling them to respond.

According to the FTC’s 15-page special order, companies must also contact agency officials within 14 days to discuss their responses and identify any information they cannot provide.

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The investigation goes beyond asking whether companies charge different prices. Regulators this time are stricter and want to know exactly how those prices are calculated and what personal information is used.

Companies must also disclose the algorithms, software, and other tools used to adjust prices, along with the factors influencing those decisions. The order specifically covers information such as location, income, browsing history, shopping behavior, and a consumer’s estimated willingness to pay.

The FTC is also demanding details of pricing experiments, including A/B tests conducted or proposed since January 2021, and whether those strategies increased or decreased the prices consumers paid.

For delivery and ride-hailing companies, regulators want information on how drivers are assigned jobs, how their compensation is calculated, and how customer payments are split between workers and platforms.

The agency wants to scrutinize how companies determine what consumers pay for the same product or service, as well as how ride-hailing and delivery platforms calculate gig workers’ compensation.

“Consumers deserve to know whether companies use their web surfing habits or other personal data to estimate the highest price they can charge each consumer,” said Andrew N. Ferguson, FTC chairman.

“Workers also deserve to know if their compensation is affected by how companies use their personal data,” Ferguson added.

In January 2025, the FTC released preliminary findings from an earlier surveillance-pricing investigation. It showed that information such as a person’s location or browser history could be used to target consumers with different prices for identical goods and services.

That earlier investigation focused on technology intermediaries rather than on these retailers and service providers who make actual pricing decisions.

But the latest inquiry goes directly to those businesses, seeking information about their pricing practices.

Consumers have already reported different prices for the same products

There is evidence that consumers sometimes see substantially different prices for identical purchases.

A December 2025 investigation by Consumer Reports and Groundwork Collaborative, involving 437 shoppers, found that 74% of grocery items tested on Instacart were offered at multiple prices.

Some shoppers saw prices as much as 23% higher than others viewing the same products from the same store at the same time.

For example, a dozen Lucerne eggs at a Safeway in Washington, D.C., appeared at five different prices, ranging from $3.99 to $4.79.

The researchers found that identical grocery baskets varied in price by an average of approximately 7%.

Following the investigation, Instacart ended its item-price testing program in December 2025. However, the company maintained that its tests were randomized and did not rely on shoppers’ personal data, demographics, or individual purchasing behavior.

Grocery shopping isn’t the only area where consumers have encountered such discrepancies.

A June 2026 Consumer Reports investigation involving 174 volunteers found significant price differences between Uber and Lyft for the same routes at nearly the same time.

Across 30 virtually tested routes, the median difference between the highest- and lowest-price groups was 42.4%.

Both companies disputed the conclusions and denied personalizing base fares using individual consumer information, attributing differences to real-time market conditions.

These investigations demonstrate that price discrepancies exist, but they do not establish that the companies used personal information to determine how much individual shoppers should pay.

Uber and Lyft have been investigated for offering different prices to customers in the past.MOZCO Mateusz Szymanski / Getty Images

Delta, Instacart respond to FTC pricing inquiry

In a statement provided to TheStreet, a Delta spokesperson denied using personal data to offer individualized airfares.

“There is no fare product Delta has ever used, is testing or plans to use that targets customers with individualized offers based on personal data. We have zero tolerance for discriminatory or predatory pricing and fully comply with applicable privacy, pricing, and advertising laws,” the spokesperson said.

Delta had also addressed concerns about AI-powered pricing in an August 2025 statement, explaining that it uses aggregated information rather than individual customer data to inform fare pricing.

Instacart similarly rejected the suggestion that it engages in surveillance pricing.

“Instacart does not and will not engage in surveillance pricing. We do not use personal information to set prices, and we never will,” an Instacart spokesperson told TheStreet.

The company added that it welcomed the FTC’s focus on the practice and would continue working with policymakers and regulators to explain its pricing model.

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In its pricing principles document, Instacart emphasized that retail partners control product prices on its platform. About shoppers, it said that their compensation is determined by job-related factors, including driving distance, number of items and estimated shopping time, rather than workers’ personal characteristics.

According to Instacart, shoppers offered the same delivery assignment at the same time will see identical batch pay.

Target, meanwhile, directed TheStreet to an October 15 pricing fact sheet.

“Target does not use your personal information to raise an item’s price,” the retailer stated.

Target said prices may vary due to local costs, regulations and competition. It also acknowledged using customers’ shopping histories to recommend relevant Target Circle deals, but maintained that this information is not used to increase prices.

Walmart, which had not responded to TheStreet’s inquiry by publication time, previously pledged not to use shoppers’ income, shopping history or urgency to charge them higher prices.

TheStreet previously reported on Walmart’s pricing promise.

JetBlue also pointed to its public statement saying it “does not use personal information or web browsing history to set individual pricing.”

“Fares are determined by demand and seat availability, and all customers have access to the same fares on jetblue.com and our mobile app,” the statement noted.

DoorDash, Uber, Lyft, and United Airlines had not responded to TheStreet’s requests for comment by the time of publication.

The discrepancies are concerning because many consumers already distrust variable pricing practices.

A January 2026 Ipsos Consumer Tracker survey found that 78% of Americans believe every buyer should pay the same price. Six in 10 respondents considered dynamic pricing a form of price gouging, while only about one-third believed it would help them find better deals.

The FTC plans to use the companies’ responses to produce a study examining whether personal data plays a role in setting consumer prices and worker compensation. It wants to determine whether these differences are simply the result of demand, promotions, and market conditions, or something more personal.

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