blank collar
/blæŋk ˈkɒl.ə/noun
The successor to the white collar. The worker of the AI era.
- 1
What is the blank collar? The evolution of the white-collar worker. A human whose role is no longer to execute work but to direct it: running businesses and shipping outcomes while machines handle the routine. The term names a category of work and worker. It is neither a product nor a game.
Example“Blue collars built it. White collars managed it. Blank collars orchestrate it.”
- 2
The default class of work in the AI era. Neither industry nor uniform defines it. Output does: what one human can ship with machines behind them.
Example“The blank collar economy doesn’t ask where you work, only what you ship.”
Defined in 2016 by Kristian Kabashi, who claims the definition rather than the coinage: the two words had been said before, in other mouths. From blank (“open, unwritten”) + collar, after blue-collar (1924) and white-collar (1910). Earlier terms classified a kind of work. Blank collar classifies a kind of worker, defined by what they ship rather than what they wear, and built for the age of AI.