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Silicon Valley is madly building AI agents<\/a> to augment human labor. If such agents work as intended, a whole swath of jobs could become extinct \u2014 or close to it<\/a>. AI agents are poised to displace customer service reps, sales associates, executive assistants, IT admins, junior developers, and journalists. AI startup Boardy<\/a> even replaces the \u201chelpful VC\u201d by automating introductions to people.<\/p>\n When founders or investors are asked about the potential job displacement<\/a> their tech will cause, the answer is always the same: Yes, AI will eliminate some jobs. But it will also create others.<\/p>\n Ensuring that it does has become VC Mike Ghaffary\u2019s obsession. Ghaffary is best known for his time as a general partner at Canvas Ventures and previously at Social Capital. His investments include Superhuman, Strava, Faire, Optimizely, and CloudKitchens.\u00a0<\/p>\n On Friday, Ghaffary announced exclusively to TechCrunch that he left Canvas to join Burst Capital, a VC firm founded in 2017 by a group of former Yelp execs. Burst is led by former Yelp COO Geoff Donaker. (Ghaffary and Donaker also worked together at Yelp years ago.)<\/p>\n At Burst, Ghaffary is looking to back companies that don\u2019t just create jobs but create good-paying middle-class jobs for the millions of people who don\u2019t have advanced degrees in AI and machine learning.<\/p>\n \u201cAs we\u2019re seeing this job displacement, we\u2019re actually doing something about it,\u201d he tells TechCrunch. \u201cI feel like there\u2019s a lot of \u2018Don\u2019t worry. Don\u2019t look here. AI will destroy a lot of jobs, but it will create jobs, too!\u2019 As tech companies, we need to go create those new jobs we\u2019re promising.\u201d<\/p>\n He sees a few companies doing so by offering tech to small business owners, like Owner.com, which helps mom-and-pop restaurant owners with marketing;<\/a> or GlossGenius<\/a>, which makes all-in-one booking and payments software for hairdressers.\u00a0<\/p>\n Among his own portfolio is ResQ, which helps restaurants and hospitality businesses manage their equipment repair needs, including matching them with repair tradesmen.<\/p>\n But Ghaffary says the biggest gap he sees is startups using AI to create high-paying jobs. \u201cI\u2019ll tell you one company I\u2019m looking for, too, that I haven\u2019t found: vocational training.\u201d<\/p>\n He wants to see founders building startups that use AI to help people learn high-paying trades like industrial electricians or commercial plumbers, or to level up their skills in other such industries. <\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s where AI could come in,\u201d he says. He\u2019d like to see an affordable plan that would offer virtual or otherwise AI-enhanced training, \u201calmost like flight simulation\u201d but for the \u201cmillions of people\u201d at risk of being left behind.<\/p>\n \u201cI think there\u2019s a big opportunity,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd it\u2019s for the sake of our country and our world. Otherwise we have this big underemployed society and it\u2019s not good for anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n