Mark Cuban has some counterintuitive advice for anyone entering the job market right now: forget the Fortune 500 companies and head straight for the smaller players.

The billionaire entrepreneur recently explained his thinking on job hunting in the AI era, and it boils down to a simple calculation. At a massive corporation with hundreds or thousands of IT employees, your AI expertise becomes just another skillset in a crowded department. But at a smaller company? You're suddenly the person who can transform how the entire business operates.

"Small- to medium-size companies don't have that depth. They are typically entrepreneurially driven and don't have the flexibility to have people research things. Bringing a new graduate on to work on agentic AI projects is inexpensive for them and can get them immediate results," Cuban told CNBC.

Cuban's logic makes sense when you think about it. Large corporations have the luxury of dedicated research teams and can afford to let AI initiatives simmer for months or years. Smaller companies don't have that patience or those resources. They need someone who can walk in, identify processes that AI can automate, and start delivering results immediately.

Using his own pharmaceutical venture, Cost Plus Drugs, as an example during a podcast episode of "The Dumbest Guy In the Room," Cuban emphasized how individuals who understand AI can help automate processes, boosting productivity, competitiveness, and ultimately profitability.

Here's the kicker: Cuban shared that 95% of companies haven't seen measurable revenue returns from their AI investments yet. The exceptions? Mostly early-stage tech startups run by young entrepreneurs who built their entire operations around AI models tailored specifically to their business needs from day one.

This creates an opening. Companies are still figuring out how to actually use AI for competitive advantage, and Cuban is urging his own children and other young people to become experts in AI implementation. The opportunity mirrors what happened in the early internet days, when companies scrambled to hire young people who actually understood the technology.

"Small companies have to compete differently, and they don't have the resources to just have a huge IT department. Just like we saw with the early days of the internet, you hired young kids who were more comfortable with it, who learned it already and could come in and implement new things," Cuban explained.

The message is clear: if you're entering the workforce with AI skills, smaller companies offer a better stage to showcase what you can do. They're more flexible, more innovative, and desperate for someone who can help them leverage AI without the corporate bureaucracy that bogs down larger organizations. Plus, when you're one of five people instead of one of five thousand, your contributions actually get noticed.