OpenAI's CFO says AI is replacing some jobs, but many are mundane ones

OpenAI's CFO said AI is reducing the need for workers doing repetitive tasks, like credit checks.

Bloomberg/Getty Images OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar said AI is reducing the need for workers doing repetitive tasks.

Friar said OpenAI uses AI for "mundane" finance work like credit checks.

Friar said that with AI, the cost of each credit check fell from $200 to about $0.17.

OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar said that AI is reducing the need for some workers , but only repetitive ones.

In a Tuesday interview with CNBC's Jim Cramer on "Mad Money," Friar addressed AI use for efficiency at OpenAI, using her own finance department as an example.

"There is no doubt we are doing things with our own products inside of finance, for example, that do limit the number of people we need," Friar told Cramer.

"But in many cases it's for jobs that I don't think of as great jobs, frankly." Friar pointed to credit checks as one example.

OpenAI's procurement operation was conducting them at an annual rate of 2,800 last year, she said.

"That credit check is a pretty mundane piece of work," Friar said.

"Do you want a junior analyst doing that, or can we get a very intelligent model to do it for us?" "I think it's actually enabling people to do more work at the edge, more work where intelligence is needed," Friar added.

"And then you get a lot of the rote stuff done by the model and actually done at probably a better scale and with more accuracy, frankly." The financial payoff was significant: Friar said the cost per check fell from $200 per check to about 17 cents.

"That is a great ROI for a CFO," Friar added.

Friar's comments come as some leading AI figures issue much starker warnings about the technology's impact on employment.