The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has released a study showing that artificial intelligence could already perform work equal to 11.7% of the U.S. labor market, or as much as $1.2 trillion in wages. The research uses a new simulation tool called the Iceberg Index that was created by MIT and Oak Ridge National Laboratory to model how 151 million American workers might be affected by AI and future policy decisions. Instead of focusing only on major tech hubs, the index provides a detailed, nationwide picture of where disruption may appear.
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The Iceberg Index acts like a “digital twin” of the U.S. workforce that’s powered by the Frontier supercomputer at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge lab in Tennessee. It treats each of the 151 million workers as an individual agent with specific skills, tasks, and locations, thereby mapping more than 32,000 skills across 923 occupations in 3,000 counties. The researchers found that the visible layoffs in tech represent only a small “tip of the iceberg,” or about $211 billion in wage exposure.
The much larger $1.2 trillion impact comes from routine roles in HR, logistics, finance, and office administration that are often overlooked in automation predictions. For investors, this suggests that AI’s effects may spread across far more industries and regions than expected. However, it’s worth noting that the index is not designed to predict exactly when or where jobs will be lost. Instead, it gives policymakers a way to explore different scenarios before committing billions of dollars to real programs.
Is IVES Stock a Good AI ETF to Buy?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on the Dan IVES Wedbush AI Revolution ETF (IVES), which holds stocks like Tesla (TSLA) and Google (GOOGL), based on 28 Buys, four Holds, and zero Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. Furthermore, the average IVES price target of $38.47 per share implies 21.3% upside potential.
