Allianz's Mohamed El-Erian said volatility is here to stay, but investors will be presented with many buying opportunities.
"This is also going to create buying opportunities, but you have to be really, really careful," the firm's chief economic adviser told CNBC's "Closing Bell."
U.S. equities were taken for another ride lower after China's Shanghai composite fell 3.5 percent and closed in bear market territory.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell dropped as many as 536.94 points at session lows, while the S&P 500 broke below its August lows. The Nasdaq composite fell about 3 percent.
While stocks are still sharply lower, they have pared some losses.
"I think you can boil down everything going on in the market to three things. One is we are shifting volatility regimes," El-Erian said. "We've come from a period where central banks had been very successful in repressing volatility and now, either they can't or they're not willing to."
The CBOE Volatility index, considered the best gauge of fear in the market, traded at about 28 Friday, up 17 percent.
VIX in 2016View Related Chart