AI and the Future of Work
AI is coming for our jobs—or so I’m told by people who seem very sure of themselves. Depending on who you ask, we’re either heading for an economic Golden Age where robots do all the boring stuff while we paint watercolors and find inner peace… or we’re tumbling headlong into a dystopia where we fight smart toasters for scraps of dignity.
Personally, I don’t know which of those futures (if either) will come true. What I do know is that certainty is overrated, and when we’re too busy predicting, we stop asking better questions. And that, my friends, is where the good thinking happens.
So instead of trying to predict the future of work, let’s ask some awkward, wide-angle questions—not just about AI, but about work itself. Because the more I think about it, the stranger this whole "job" thing becomes.
Trying to predict the future of work with AI is like trying to predict what your teenager will wear to school tomorrow; it could be sensible, it could be inside out, it could be a phase that makes no sense to anyone. Complex systems are like that: messy, emergent, full of surprises.
So instead of asking, "What will happen?" maybe the better question is: How do we prepare for surprises we can’t predict? Because history teaches us one thing—when we think we’ve got it all figured out, reality finds a creative way to remind us we don’t.
“Jobs” are Actually Really New
Here’s a weird thought: for most of human history, there was no such thing as a job.
For tens of thousands of years, humans lived in small groups, hunting, gathering, storytelling, singing, crafting, raising children, and keeping the fire going. Nobody had a LinkedIn profile. Nobody applied for "Intermediate Spear Technician." People contributed to their communities, but they didn’t define themselves by their occupational category.
The idea that your value comes from the specific economic activity you perform? That’s an invention. First by agriculture, when we settled down and divided up labor. Then by the industrial revolution, when we started slicing time into shifts and calling it productivity.
I’m not saying work is bad; I’m saying work as identity is a very recent story. And it’s a story we might be on the verge of rewriting.
Could AI Nudge Us Toward a Post-Work Era?
What if AI’s real effect isn’t just what jobs disappear, but the fact that we start questioning why jobs define us at all?
Maybe (and I’m just thinking here) AI is the spark that forces us to remember that meaning didn’t always come from work. Meaning came from stories we told around the fire, from rituals and creativity and helping others. Meaning came from being part of something larger than yourself—not from what you put on your resume.
If AI handles the spreadsheets and the paperwork and the assembly lines, could that free us to rediscover forms of meaning that aren’t tethered to productivity at all? What would it look like to reclaim that older sense of purpose—the one that doesn’t depend on quarterly performance reviews?
Are We Overrating Experts?
I have nothing but love for economists, technologists, and policymakers, but let’s be honest; every one of us brings our own blind spots to the table. Economists see data. Techies see code. Policy folks see regulations. None of us sees the whole elephant.
Real understanding of AI and work is going to require something bigger—a conversation that pulls in anthropology, history, philosophy, and maybe a bit of kitchen-table wisdom from your granny. It’s not about finding the expert with the answers, but about gathering curious people who can ask better questions, across disciplines, and not be afraid to admit when we’re stumped.
Ask yourself this question, what if the smartest people in the room aren’t the ones making predictions, but the ones asking: What are we missing?
Work is a Chaotic Miracle
Even if you’re not into history, you’ve got to admire work’s sheer adaptability. New technology comes along, old jobs disappear, and new jobs pop up that would’ve sounded completely absurd a decade earlier. (Social media manager? Full-time unbox-er? Professional goat yoga instructor?)
It’s not magic—it’s spontaneous order. Work, like a potluck, somehow self-organizes. Nobody needs to assign who brings the salad—we just figure it out. And that adaptability doesn’t disappear because AI enters the scene. In fact, if history is any guide, AI will create whole new categories of work we can’t even imagine yet.
If AI kills some jobs, what might it create instead? And could those new roles be more creative, more human, more…meaningful?
Are We Ready to Rethink Identity?
Let’s be honest—this isn’t just an economic conversation. It’s personal. In our culture, the first question we ask someone is: “What do you do?” as if your whole identity fits neatly into a job title.
But what if we asked: “What do you care about?” Or “What are you learning?” Or “What makes you feel alive?”
I’m not saying we abolish work. I’m saying we loosen its grip on our sense of self. Because if our identity isn’t fused to our career, then AI can’t take who we are — it can only change how we spend our time.
And if that happens, could we discover that our real value was never about our productivity in the first place?
Can Institutions Help Us Adapt?
If work is changing—and it will—one of the best things we can do is build institutions that help people adapt. Not just with job training (though that matters), but with real flexibility—the ability to reinvent yourself multiple times, without shame or fear.
That means schools that teach curiosity, not just content. Safety nets that encourage exploration, not just emergency survival. Policies that protect human dignity and leave space for experimentation.
What would it look like if our institutions were designed for lifelong reinvention, instead of treating careers like a one-time choice you make at 17?
Hope Without Certainty?
That’s the big question, isn’t it? Because here’s my real reason for optimism—not because I think AI will “save” us, but because history shows that human creativity is astonishingly resilient. Not because we plan everything perfectly, but because we’re really good at making it up as we go.
AI might change work in ways we can’t predict. But human beings have been adapting to technological shifts for a very long time. And every time, we find new ways to create, connect, and find meaning.
So maybe—just maybe—AI isn’t the end of work, but the start of remembering something older. That we are more than what we do for a paycheck. And maybe, just maybe, that’s the best kind of disruption there is.