AI and the future of work

This article connects with my emerging research focus on AI, discourse, and the reshaping of institutional and public narratives in contemporary society.

The possible new dawn

A decade into the age of automation, cities hum, but differently. The glass towers of former corporate districts now host shared studios, learning hubs, community care centres and civic workshops. Few people commute for a salary; the workday has softened into projects, gatherings and rituals of contribution.

Artificial intelligence (AI) now manages ledgers, contracts and logistics that once consumed millions of human hours. Lawyers, analysts and administrators no longer file or forecast. Instead they curate, translate or advise when moral judgement is needed.

In parks and public squares, people take time to repair and learn. Leisure has become its own economy. Language, sport, culture, life design and travel are the new growth sectors. Status is no longer tied to job titles but to participation.

Shops still sell goods, but what people buy has changed with more emphasis on tools for expression, enriching experiences and memberships that connect. Consumption hasn’t disappeared, it’s become more intentional. Success is measured not by accumulation but by engagement.

Governments no longer treat unemployment as a crisis indicator. Instead, they publish participation indices; measures of how citizens contribute through teaching, care, creativity and vital community work. Nations compete not for economic growth but for wellbeing scores: time security, ecological balance and civic trust.

Leisure is now the fastest-growing sector in history, accounting for nearly a third of global output. Experiences, education and design have overtaken manufacturing. Tourism merges with cultural exchange. Where consumption persists, it’s purposeful.

This is one version of the future—a world where automation didn’t end work but redefined it. A civilisation that discovered abundance and retained purpose. But it wasn’t inevitable; it had to be designed.

The crossroads

Automation is no longer a promise or a threat. It’s here. AI is transforming every profession, not just factories and logistics but also media, public service, design and finance. Our collective future may well follow one of three broad paths:

1. The Efficiency Trap

If capitalism continues unchanged, it will keep reducing labour in pursuit of efficiency until consumption itself falters. Mass underemployment would coincide with concentrated wealth. Many people could drift into precarity, ‘make-work’ or surveillance-based gig roles, jobs that appear productive but offer little security or meaning. The economy would become efficient at everything except sustaining human purpose.

2. The Redistribution Turn

A wiser path recognises that automation creates abundance but reduces wages. When machines do most of the work, societies must decouple income from employment. This could include:

• universal basic income
• shorter working weeks
• ‘contribution credits’ for caregiving and community work—forms of labour that markets ignore but communities rely on.

Once survival is assured, people can choose work that serves others rather than systems. We are already seeing some promising results:

• Finland’s basic income trial
  In a two-year experiment, recipients of unconditional payments reported higher life satisfaction (7.3 out of 10 compared to 6.8 in the control group), and lower levels of stress and depression. While employment increased only slightly, wellbeing improved significantly.
• Global pilot programs
  A meta-analysis of basic income trials across different countries found measurable improvements in health, education, housing stability and asset ownership. These results suggest that redistribution can deliver social and psychological benefits—even when job creation is limited.

3. Redefining who we are

In the most transformative scenario, work no longer defines identity. A new value system would prioritise empathy, mentorship, moral judgement and community building. Human time would be measured not by output, but by meaning.

If we get it wrong/right

If the transition is mishandled, many people will drift into idleness and low-agency survival. Handled wisely, this shift could become one of the most humane transformations in history. It would allow people to:

1. Reclaim time for meaning
   Freed from compulsory labour, individuals could invest in art, care, learning and community; pursuits that have always been valuable but rarely appropriately rewarded.
2. Cultivate local resilience
   As global systems automate, human purpose may return to local contexts: education, ecology, mentoring, civic upkeep and leisure; areas that resist mechanisation.
3. Develop new forms of mastery
   AI will manage repetitive tasks; humans will focus on synthesis, ethical reasoning, emotional intelligence and cultural design.

A new job contract

The social contract that once tied wages to survival must evolve. The next version will reward participation, not just labour.

1. Guaranteed baseline income
   When production is automated, survival must be separated from employment. A universal or guaranteed income becomes the stabilising floor.
   In a long-term universal basic income (UBI) experiment in Kenya, recipients with multi-year guaranteed payments showed greater saving, investment and business creation than those receiving short-term transfers, proof that security enables enterprise.
2. Contribution over occupation
   Instead of job titles, people could earn social or cultural credits for mentoring, caring, education, environmental repair or creative work—contributions that markets undervalue but societies need.
3. Shorter, purpose-driven work cycles
   Work may become episodic: project-based, civic or creative, punctuated by rest and learning.
4. Shared ownership of automation capital
   Citizens and co-operatives should hold equity in AI infrastructure to ensure that productivity gains circulate widely.
5. Continuous learning as civic duty
   Lifelong education becomes a civic expectation, not to stay employable, but to remain capable and adaptable.

Universal Basic Income – a new incentive

When a baseline income secures survival, self-interest doesn’t vanish, it evolves. New dynamics emerge:

1. Layered incentives
   The basic income covers essentials. Beyond that, markets continue to reward specialised creativity, leadership and innovation.
2. Reputation economies
   Value shifts towards trust, taste and originality. Verified expertise, craftsmanship and civic participation become the new currencies, tradable through platforms or co-operatives rather than employers.
3. Equity and participation models
   Income increasingly derives from shared ownership in projects, data pools or local enterprises.
4. Intrinsic drive
   Even with material needs met, humans pursue pride, recognition and mastery. The system simply redefines which behaviours earn esteem.

Across multiple UBI pilot programs, unconditional income transfers did not lead to widespread withdrawal from the labour market. Work participation remained stable while wellbeing improved—challenging the idea that security breeds idleness and showing that stability fosters initiative.

How we’ll know if it’s working

Progress will not be measured by gross domestic product (GDP) as it is now, but by quality of life and social cohesion. Indicators of success include:

• Stability without full employment
  People meet their needs even as automation dominates production. Poverty and homelessness decline despite fewer traditional jobs.
• Improved health outcomes
  Health system data shows reduced service demand and better mental health in regions trialling basic income, suggesting broader fiscal benefits.
• Voluntary participation
  Citizens engage in learning, art, community work or enterprise because they choose to, not because they must.
• Distributed ownership
  Wealth generated by automation circulates through co-operatives, public trusts or shared dividends not just among tech elites.
• Low social anxiety
  Health, education, leisure and time security improve. Mental illness linked to economic precarity recedes.
• Innovation and diversity
  Freed from survival pressure, more people experiment, founding ventures, research projects and creative movements.
• Trust in institutions
  Citizen’s regard governance as legitimate because it visibly works for them. Finland’s basic income trial showed a measurable rise in institutional trust among recipients—a small but vital signal of civic renewal.

The transition

The transition is likely to be turbulent and unpredictable. Stages of change may include:

• Shock and acceleration
  Automation erodes middle-skill employment faster than policy can adapt. Inequality and anxiety surge.
• Emergency cushioning
  Governments expand income support, public works and retraining. Pilot basic income programs scale regionally. Taxation and ownership of AI profits become urgent debates.
• Structural redesign
  Education pivots towards lifelong learning, civic skill and emotional intelligence. Work hours contract; contribution programs replace job guarantees.
• Cultural recalibration
  Societies learn to value meaning, leisure and contribution without tying them to pay.
• Steady-state balance
  Automation sustains production; humans steward ethics, culture and the environment.

The choice we have

If managed with foresight and fairness, this century could mark the first time technology liberates rather than displaces. If we treat automation as a shared inheritance, not a threat, efficiency can become freedom and wealth can become shared time.

The challenge is not to preserve every job but to preserve purpose.