Sam Altman admits he expected AI to disrupt economy faster, says he was wrong

Sam Altman says he was wrong about how quickly AI would disrupt businesses and the economy. He believes society's slow pace of adapting to new technology could make the AI transition smoother.Sam Altman says he got AI’s timeline wrong.Sam Altman has admitted that he was too optimistic about how quickly AI would disrupt businesses and change the economy. The OpenAI CEO said that while AI has advanced much faster than expected, people and businesses have been slower to adapt to the technology.In a recent interview with podcaster David Senra, Altman reflected on his earlier predictions about AI and said he underestimated how much “inertia” there is in the economy. He explained that people tend to keep using the same products, buying from the same companies and following familiar ways of working, even when new technology becomes available.Sam Altman says he got AI's timeline wrongAltman said he initially expected the impact of AI to become much more visible soon after the launch of GPT-4 in 2023. He thought software companies would face major disruption almost immediately, with businesses and products becoming easier to replace.“I thought when we got to GPT-4, which was back in 2023, that very quickly after that there was going to be much more disruption, software businesses up for grabs right away, than it turned out to be,” Altman said. According to Altman, the technology itself was not necessarily the problem. Instead, the economy simply takes time to change.“I think I was wrong about a few things, but one in terms of the speed: the economy just has so much inertia,” he said. In simple terms, even when a powerful new technology arrives, people do not suddenly change the way they work overnight. Companies have existing software, employees have established workflows and customers are already comfortable with products they use every day.Why AI's impact may take longerAltman believes this slower pace of change could actually be a good thing. A gradual transition gives businesses and society more time to understand how AI fits into everyday work instead of forcing everything to change at once.“People keep doing the same things, buying from the same company, wanting to use their tools the same way,” Altman said. He added that this inertia could help make the transition “go smoother and slower.”That does not mean Altman believes AI will have a small impact. Rather, he now expects the transformation to happen over a longer period than he previously predicted.“But it means we've all been too ambitious on timelines. Even with this incredible technology, society and the economy will adapt more slowly,” he said.The takeaway is fairly simple: AI may be moving incredibly fast, but the people and businesses using it are not. And that gap between how quickly technology improves and how quickly society adapts could shape the next phase of the AI boom.- EndsPublished On: Aug 24, 2026 09:06 IST