The proliferation of artificial intelligence will disrupt society as we know it. The technology isn’t just another wave of innovation. It’s a force reshaping how value is created, how work is done, and ultimately, who gets a share of the ever-thinning slice of prosperity. Consider how it’s already affecting work—the bedrock of modern society.
Major employers, from Microsoft and IBM to creative firms like Duolingo, have laid off thousands as they integrate AI tools into their workflows. And it’s not just the tech industry. So-called ‘low-tech’ firms are now training robots for dexterous, human-like tasks such as folding laundry, loading dishwashers, making coffee, and cleaning spaces. At a laundromat in Sacramento, a robot named Sophie now folds clothes.
Studies diverge on AI’s labor impact as some foresee modest job reductions where tasks are automatable, others highlight productivity boosts and new complementary roles. But while economists debate, disruption is already underway.
If political leaders fail to grasp how AI is redefining work itself, the technology will unravel society’s fabric and millions will suffer.
No, AI isn’t just like the internet.
AI is unlike any other technology we have seen. In the past, technological revolutions have birthed new industries, which have created new and different kinds of jobs. For example, as farming became mechanized and required fewer workers, labor shifted to manufacturing, fueling industrial growth and the rise of factories. Over time, this gave way to an expansion of service-sector jobs. At each revolution, technology still left vast realms of human work untouched. AI doesn’t.
AI is now threatening to—and in some cases can—replace cognitive, creative, and even emotional work, not just manual tasks. This means that entire categories of work, such as clerical, customer service, logistics, and even software, could vanish faster than new ones appear. This isn’t technology that will uplift everyone. The new economy AI creates will reward those who control data, algorithms, and computing power while leaving others behind.
We can’t be naive. Without deliberate reskilling and social safety nets, millions could face structural unemployment and disproportionate destitution.
Here’s why the accelerated proliferation of this technology could redefine the economic order and reshape society’s foundation.
Understanding the relationship between struggle, money, work, and consumption
From the moment we are born to the moment we take our last breath, life is a sequence of struggles—hunger, illness, desire for mobility, idleness, etc.—that we resolve through the act of consuming solutions: food, medicine, transport, paid/unpaid work, and so on. In fact, I am consuming the services of my computer, the internet, and electricity to write this blog.
In a modern economy, money is the bridge between struggle and consumption—the means by which we solve life’s problems. Without it, consumption, and thus well-being, collapses.
It’s why people in poor countries are stuck in seemingly never-ending poverty and struggle. They don’t have enough money to consume existing products and services on the market that can help them overcome their struggles. As such, on average, their self-reported life satisfaction is lower than that of people in wealthy countries. That’s why nations like Burundi or Malawi, where incomes are low, report far lower life satisfaction than Denmark or Norway.
In today’s economy, money for most of us comes from one of two sources: the work we perform, or the wealth we inherit. Since most people earn money through work rather than inherited wealth, I’ll focus on the relationship between AI and work.
Work exists on a spectrum, from jobs that rely mostly on physical labor to those driven primarily by mental effort and expertise, with countless roles that blend both.
At one end are physically demanding jobs—construction workers, farm laborers, warehouse associates, truck drivers, janitors. At the other are intellectual and creative roles—doctors, engineers, lawyers, scientists, teachers, designers. In between are hybrid roles like nurses, chefs, mechanics, and pilots that blend skill, judgment, and dexterity.
Artificial intelligence is now beginning to stretch across this entire range: robots integrated with AI are learning to perform manual tasks once thought impossible, while algorithms increasingly take on cognitive and creative work once reserved for humans.
As AI advances, it will be increasingly capable of performing tasks across this entire spectrum of work, from lifting boxes and cleaning floors to writing code and diagnosing illness, and that’s what makes this revolution fundamentally different.
It’s not that AI will replace all human work in the near term. But it need not replace all human work to have a devastating impact on society. It only needs to replace just enough work that there will be ever-shrinking opportunities left for a growing number of people. And when the opportunity to work disappears faster than new ones emerge, human struggle itself becomes unresolvable. When this happens, how will a majority of people in the world earn money to relieve their struggles?
Back to the future
History offers a warning: when ownership concentrates and work disappears, inequality hardens into a permanent feature of society.
Before the Industrial Revolution, in much of Europe and parts of Asia, society operated under a feudal system. In this system, kings or lords owned large swathes of land, which was the main source of wealth and power. They granted portions of land to vassals (nobles or knights) in exchange for loyalty and military service. At the bottom were serfs or peasants, who worked the land for the lords’ benefit. They weren’t slaves, but they were bound to the land—unable to freely leave or own property. In effect, those who worked the land couldn’t own property, a necessary component of upward mobility.
As the proliferation of AI continues and the disruption of work accelerates, there’s a risk that society could bifurcate into a similar system: a capital-owning class (similar to the land owners of old) and a working-age population without work (similar to the peasants of old). In this scenario, economic mobility will collapse, causing significant harm to a large segment of society, making social upheaval inevitable.
Yet this future is not inevitable. Just as past societies reinvented themselves after every major disruption, human ingenuity can again turn a moment of risk into one of renewal. If we channel AI’s immense power toward expanding opportunity rather than replacing it—by investing in education, shared ownership, and the creation of new markets that meet human needs—we can build an economy that values both human dignity and technological progress. The challenge before us is not to resist the future, but to design it so that everyone has a stake in it.
