DALLAS (Realist English). Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban is urging high school and college students to use their free time to learn artificial intelligence tools, calling it a “unique opportunity” to build future career advantages.
Speaking on the TBPN podcast on August 20, Cuban said that understanding how to implement AI in real-world business settings could make young people indispensable in the job market. “You don’t even have to be a software engineer,” he said. “Learn all you can about AI, but focus more on how to apply it in companies. Most businesses don’t yet understand how to integrate AI for a competitive edge.”
Cuban recommended experimenting with free tools and developing skills in prompt engineering and AI customization. “Every company needs that,” he said. “There is nothing intuitive about integrating AI — and that’s where the jobs are going to be.”
He noted that while large corporations are investing heavily in AI, most of the 34 million U.S. businesses are small and lack the budgets or expertise to adopt the technology effectively. Such companies, he predicted, will increasingly rely on younger, tech-savvy workers to lead AI implementation.
Even among major firms, adoption has been uneven. An EY survey found that many are still struggling to integrate AI effectively, while a Massachusetts Institute of Technology report in July revealed that 95% of companies have yet to see measurable revenue gains from AI investments. The most successful cases so far have been small startups led by young founders who tailor AI systems to their specific needs.
Cuban compared today’s AI revolution to his own early days in software sales: “When I was 24, I was walking into companies that had never seen a PC before, trying to explain its value,” he recalled. “Now, AI is at that same stage — and it’s the young people who can teach others how to use it.”
If he were a teenager today, Cuban said, he would start a side business teaching small and mid-sized firms how to use AI effectively. “Doesn’t matter if I’m 16,” he told CNBC last year. “I’d be teaching them as well.”
He’s not alone in this advice. Ethan Mollick, a professor at the Wharton School, recommends using AI tools for at least ten hours a week — including paid versions like Claude, GPT, or Gemini — to understand their strengths and limitations. “Employers need to crowdsource the best AI users and turn their ideas into real products,” Mollick said. “My number one piece of advice: pay $20 a month and use these tools for everything you can — legally.”
