LinkedIn Is Bullish On The Innovation Economy

This post first appeared on Forbes on March 26, 2025.

The current disengagement in the workforce is pervasive and teetering on the edge of explosive. In short, people aren't happy with the current arrangement of working in an office eight hours a day, five days a week for an employer who, in return, offers little to no stability. Pair that with an inconsistent rhetoric around the impact of AI on the job market and you have a scenario where people are deeply mistrustful, burned out, and fearful of what the next source of income stability may be. "This world of work was always built to be broken when it comes to humans, and the labor market has been explicitly exploitative," says Aneesh Raman, Chief Economic Opportunity Officer at LinkedIn and former speechwriter to Barack Obama. But Raman thinks that by shifting the focus to skills rather than jobs and embracing an entrepreneurial spirit, we can build something better to take its place.

At a recent LinkedIn event in London, Raman explained how he sees work shifting from the current knowledge economy to an innovation economy. The innovation economy is based on creativity and new ideas — and it’s this creativity that is going to be a driver of growth. It’s also something AI will struggle to replace. "In some parts of the world, including Silicon Valley, there is a view that the most efficient way for AI to grow the economy is a billion-dollar business with no employees. Obviously, I think that’s misguided given all the human capability that’s going to come to the center. But I think what is possible is a billion-dollar person who has never had to work at a company, and that’s going to completely change how work works," says Raman. What Raman is tapping into is a sense of optimism and opportunity. It’s not about what jobs are left after AI becomes embedded in the mainstream; it’s about what new opportunities exist because of it. "It's not just innovation at work as employees, but innovating at work as entrepreneurs," says Raman. "With people questioning why they work, not just what they do, mixed in with these big technological changes that are happening, I think we're entering an entirely new dynamic for what is work."

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