The coronavirus pandemic is pushing more jobs to automation faster, but that doesn't mean more humans need be out of work. A McKinsey and Company study estimates half of American job tasks will be automated in five years, so diverse populations are needed to program and run artificial intelligence. "If you only have certain types of people and certain types of populations in forming that translation of the human mind in machine learning, you're only going to get a portion of what you need," said Darcy Renfro, chief workforce and economic development officer with Maricopa Community Colleges. Renfro and other Valley education leaders spoke in the live webinar "Future of Workforce," hosted by the Greater Phoenix Economic Council on Thursday. She also said advanced degrees are not always needed to program the computers and machines that think for us.