Fred Turner, CEO of Curative, isn't just talking about AI—he's deployed it to brutally cut costs and redefine his workforce. After scaling a COVID testing business to $5 billion, then pivoting to health insurance now valued at $1.3 billion, Turner's company is aggressively adopting AI. The results are stark: an 80% reduction in SaaS spend, including the cancellation of a $600,000 Salesforce contract.

His view of AI's impact on jobs isn't sugar-coated. Turner predicts a future where companies are "quite a bit smaller" and warns that many 'awful back-office jobs' will simply vanish. But it's not all displacement. He sees two critical areas where human talent remains irreplaceable, alongside a surprising new role that will become central to any AI-driven enterprise.

Key Takeaways

  • Curative slashed its SaaS spend by 80% and canceled a $600,000 Salesforce contract by leveraging AI for back-office automation.
  • AI will make companies "inherently smaller" in the short term, leading to widespread displacement in 'awful back-office jobs' as tasks are automated.
  • Human investment will narrow to two critical areas: technical skills for managing and deploying AI, and relationship-driven roles that demand human connection.
  • A brand-new, vital role called the 'agent supervisor' will emerge to manage the exceptions and edge cases generated by AI agents.
  • The societal shift from AI efficiency may necessitate some form of universal basic income, challenging traditional notions of work and purpose.

The AI Slasher: Smaller Teams, Bigger Savings

Curative's approach to AI is less about augmentation and more about radical restructuring. Turner openly admits that many traditional roles are on the chopping block. “I think for a lot of these back office jobs, yes,” he said when asked if companies will be smaller in the future. He dismisses the common developer narrative, noting that while there's an “insatiable appetite for more software,” many other roles don't share that same future-proofing. He's not just theorizing; Curative's own 80% SaaS reduction and the outright ditching of a $600,000 Salesforce deal prove his point. This isn't theoretical efficiency; it's a direct, measurable impact on the bottom line that will drive companies to shrink their human footprint.

Humans as Tech Builders and Connectors

While Turner is blunt about job displacement, he carves out two essential domains for human talent. At Curative, they're “really investing in people” in two specific areas: “technical skills and relationships.” The technical skills are obvious: someone has to build, deploy, and maintain the AI systems. These are the engineers, data scientists, and AI architects. The relationship roles are equally important. These are the sales leads, partnership managers, and customer success leaders who navigate complex human interactions that AI, for now, cannot replicate. Any role that falls outside these two buckets, in Turner's view, should be scrutinized for automation potential.

Your Next Critical Hire: The Agent Supervisor

Perhaps the most concrete insight from Turner is his prediction for a brand-new, high-demand role. When asked what job doesn't exist today but will be big in five years, he didn't hesitate: the "agent supervisor." As AI agents take on more routine tasks, they will inevitably generate exceptions, odd cases, and scenarios outside their programmed parameters. These exceptions will pile up, and a human will need to step in to review, guide, and correct. This role isn't about doing the routine work; it's about overseeing the AI doing the routine work and intervening when it inevitably breaks or faces novel situations. Think of it as quality control and troubleshooting for your digital workforce.

What to Do With This

This week, take a hard look at your team's role composition. Map out every position, categorizing them as primarily 'technical/AI deployment,' 'relationship-driven,' or 'back-office/process-oriented.' For that last category, begin prototyping AI solutions with the same aggressive mindset Turner applied at Curative, and start defining the 'agent supervisor' role that will be necessary to manage the coming wave of AI exceptions.