Palantir CEO Alex Karp says neurodivergent workers will thrive in the AI era. An autistic psychologist says he has a point

Palantir CEO Alex Karp once said neurodivergent people will succeed in the AI era. One psychologist who is also autistic thinks the billionaire has a point, but says that neurodivergent workers’ advantage might not be what people think.

Karp, who is dyslexic, made his case about neurodivergent people earlier this year in an interview on the business podcast TBPN.

“There are basically two ways to know you have a future,” Karp said of workers in the AI era. “One, you have some vocational training. Or two, you’re neurodivergent.”

Karp has previously said his struggle with dyslexia was a “ formative moment ” that helped him learn to “think freely.” He has also credited dealing with dyslexia for his success cofounding Palantir and growing it into a massive software company worth roughly $470 billion. Karp has been at the helm for more than two decades, after cofounding it alongside Peter Thiel, Joe Lonsdale, Stephen Cohen, and Nathan Gettings in 2003.

During the interview with TBPN, Karp argued that AI is changing which skills and perspectives are valuable in the workplace.

“The thing they need to learn to do is be more of an artist, look at things from a different direction, be able to build something unique,” he said.

Daniel Wendler, a psychologist who specializes in neurodiversity and is himself autistic , agrees that people who think differently could have an advantage as AI reshapes the workplace. He says neurodivergent people’s different perspectives are especially important at a time when technology is forcing companies to adapt to a changing business environment.

“If you don’t have neurodivergent minds in the room tackling AI, looking at it, then you miss out on that unique perspective,” Wendler told Fortune .

As businesses reconsider how AI changes jobs and the workplace, those perspectives could help change the long-standing assumptions about which qualities make an employee valuable and how tasks are completed, he said.

But he also sees another reason neurodivergent workers, a group that can include people with autism, ADHD and dyslexia, could find themselves uniquely positioned to benefit from the technology.

Wendler said the modern workplace has been designed for neurotypical employees, which makes it hard for neurodivergent people to fit in and excel. As AI starts to reshape the workplace, there’s an opportunity to change that, he said.

“Many workplaces are set up to kind of accommodate neurotypical weaknesses and to support neurotypical strengths,” he said. “But then, for neurodivergent people, that stuff gets missed.”

As AI forces companies to operate differently, he said they could start to look at how to better accommodate different kinds of thinkers who might add to the company’s competitive advantage, rather than expecting all employees to adapt to a single way of working.