The $10 Billion Startup Training AI to Do Your Job

The $10 Billion Startup Training AI to Do Your Job

From Big Take by Bloomberg and iHeartPodcasts

April 29, 2026 · 21 min

About this episode

The episode explores how the startup Mercor is training AI to take over white-collar jobs by hiring professionals to teach their routines.

Amid the nervousness about whether AI will replace human workers, one company has been aggressively seeking professionals. The San Francisco startup, Mercor, isn’t hiring experts to perform their jobs; it’s paying them an hourly rate to teach their daily routines to AI agents.  On today’s Big Take podcast, reporter Tom Foster takes host Sarah Holder into the world of Mercor — why professionals are signing up to train the AI that could take over parts of their jobs and how the company’s founders want to remake white-collar work. Read more:  The $10 Billion Startup Training AI to Replace the White-Collar Workforce Amazon to Sell OpenAI Tech After Microsoft Cedes Exclusivity We have a special Bloomberg subscription offer for podcast listeners at Bloomberg.com/podcastoffer. Hosted by Sarah Holder; Produced by Julia Press; Reported by Tom Foster; Edited by Jeffrey Grocott. Fact-checking by Eleanor Harrison-Dengate and Rachael Lewis-Krisky; Engineering by Alex Sugiura. Senior Producer: Naomi Shavin; Deputy Executive Producer: Julia Weaver. Executive Producer: Nicole Beemsterboer. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

People in this episode

Host: Sarah Holder

Topics covered

  • AI training
  • job automation
  • white-collar workforce
  • startup culture
  • professional development

Keywords

  • AI
  • Mercor
  • job training
  • automation
  • white-collar work
  • startup
  • Bloomberg
  • iHeartPodcasts

Sponsors

Bloomberg

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Microsoft, Mercor, Bloomberg, iHeartPodcasts, OpenAI

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