Billionaire Mark Cuban suggests his two children seeking employment should focus on smaller businesses rather than big corporations.
TL;DR
- Mark Cuban advises his children to seek jobs at smaller businesses over large corporations.
- Small businesses value crucial AI skills more than large corporations where they might be extraneous.
- New graduates can build AI agents to automate tasks, offering immediate results for small firms.
- Gen Z job seekers can leverage AI proficiencies to stand out in the entry-level job market.
The advice might not only benefit his children but also assist individuals navigating the entry-level job market in this AI era. He believes small companies are preferable because your skills become more crucial.
At large corporations, AI skills can end up feeling “somewhat extraneous,” the former Dallas Mavericks owner and investor told CNBC Make It. If you are a recent graduate who knows how to use AI, the company’s established IT teams probably already do as well.
By comparison, small to medium-sized companies, “don’t have that depth,” he said.
“[Small-to-medium-sized companies] are typically entrepreneurially driven and don’t have the flexibility to have people research things,” Cuban added. “Bringing a new graduate on to work on agentic AI projects is inexpensive for them and can get them immediate results.”
Cuban's counsel, offered by someone who is worth $6 billion, arrives as Gen Z job seekers face difficulties entering the job market. This is partly due to AI taking over numerous initial roles that previously provided access, like data cleaning, summarization and other clerical duties. Cuban contends that smaller businesses represent a fresh opportunity for leveraging these AI proficiencies.
What distinguishes various Gen Z candidates
Gen Z is spearheading AI adoption among smaller businesses. A survey by CNBC|Survey Monkey revealed that 37% of small business owners are presently utilizing AI tools, and 71% intend to boost their current spending.
Cuban told Coins2Day what will make candidates stand out when going to a small business is their ability to build simple AI agents that automate the time-consuming tasks that go undone because “manual labor is too expensive”.
“Every company has stuff that doesn’t get done because it would require someone to sit with a spreadsheet for hours. Or to count things. Or to edit. Or to check receipts for accuracy,” Cuban said. “These things can be done with agents and save small companies cash and improve productivity and competitiveness.”
He added it only takes “a basic understanding of programming and how AI models create agents.”
The Shark Tank star has three children, with two currently in college at Vanderbilt University and UCLA. He encourages them to learn as much as possible about AI, but even more when it comes to implementing the skills in companies.
“Like I tell every young kid, there’s going to be two types of companies in this country: There’s going to be those who are great at AI and those who used to be in business,” he previously said on the The Dumbest Guy In the Room podcast.
AI boosts big firms' output; small businesses lag.
Cuban’s advice comes as AI is widening the AI gap between large and small companies. While larger companies are seeing AI productivity gains from the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT model in 2022, small-cap names are seeing a decline of real revenue per worker.
When comparing the S&P 500 to the Russell 2000, the small-cap index reflects the separation in productivity gains. According to an October report, the S&P 500 is up 74% since ChatGPT’s 2022 launch, while the Russell is up only 39%.
For larger companies, major corporations have been aggressively deploying AI tools to streamline operations and in some cases, cutting head count. A World Economic Forum survey from early 2025 found 40% of companies expect to reduce their workforces in roles where AI can automate tasks.