By Dylan Bettencourt
- Estonian company Hertwill posts job adverts saying only AI programs can apply, causing debate about the future of work.
- The company says AI won’t fully replace humans but could do up to 80% of some jobs to save money.
A shopping website in Estonia put out job adverts that say, “Humans cannot apply.”
The company, called Hertwill, posted two job adverts on LinkedIn. But these weren’t normal job ads—they were looking for computer programs called AI agents to do the work instead of people.
“Note: This position is not for humans,” reads one of the job ads. “Only AI agents with proven capabilities in brand sourcing, outreach, and automation should apply.”
Hertwill isn’t alone in this strange new way of hiring. A few weeks ago, an American company called Firecrawl also advertised for AI workers only, offering R280,000 for the job.
But what’s really going on here? Hertwill’s co-founder, Joosep Sibul, says they’re not actually trying to replace all their workers with robots.
“We are pre-seed, so instead of going out and hiring a person, which would cost us a lot of money, we feel that we can grow by finding someone to build AI agents for us to do tasks,” he says, Sifted reported.
Sibul thinks these computer programs could do about 70–80% of some jobs, like finding new brands to sell on their website.
Experts say we shouldn’t panic just yet. Akshat Goenka from Moonfire Ventures says that while AI can do some jobs better than humans, it won’t take over completely.
Adam Shuaib from Episode 1 thinks that in six months, AI could do up to 75% of jobs like writing computer code and helping customers. But it will take two years before AI can do 90% of these jobs.
“You’ll still need that 10% human intervention to make sure the tech’s not running riot,” says Shuaib.
Hertwill currently has four full-time workers and two freelancers. Sibul hopes to add two AI workers soon.
“We feel that it’s possible with AI agents to build a huge company without a huge team,” he says.
The big question now is: how long before we see more “No humans wanted” signs on job boards?
Pictured above: An AI robot stock image.
Image source: Pexels
