Will 100% automation break the economy?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become the talk of the town for the past few years. Since the launch of ChatGPT and its efficiency, there has been a huge wave of debate about job security and a list of ways to use it to improve our productivity.

Every now and then, society faces such transformations to keep the cycle running. Such innovation has helped us live better lives, but at times it has taken away a few jobs from the market, forcing workers to look for other employment opportunities to survive. The core of innovation is to simplify an existing process or improve it by reducing costs, process times, and improving accuracy in the current processes. Thus, a few changes will definitely have a mild to heavy impact on specific jobs, sectors, or even the entire industry. So, it's a smart way to accept the fact that sometimes we must be ready to embrace changes.

Among all other theories, the world is divided into two sets of people: 1. Producers and 2. Consumers. The world is fueled by business—one group produces, and the other consumes. Hence, the economy keeps running. Let's see this with an example: A company called X manufactures the Y (product) with the help of Z (workers/employees) by paying them some money as salary/wages from selling the Y (products) to C (customers). But how will customer C buy a product Y? They earn money from doing some other work somewhere else. So, a Z (employee) in one place becomes a C (customer/consumer) in another place. Just imagine if company X were to replace their entire workforce or at least 90% with AI. Now, the employees Z will lose the power of becoming a consumer C since they will be sent out. If this happens in one company with 1000 employees, a variety of products in the market will lose 1000 buyers all of a sudden. This applies to all other product and service industries too, as consumers can take any form, but they are the foundation for any business. What if this happens in one particular industry or a set of similar businesses? It could lead to a far-reaching economic crash!

As the world runs on business, taxes, and interests, replacing 100% of the workforce with AI will have irreversible impacts all across the world. If people run out of money, they will no longer be customers. Hence, no sales, no revenue, no profit, and companies will not be able to repay their loans and taxes. Governments will run out of money, and inflation will soar. At one point, only big billionaires will be able to afford their basic needs, but even that won't last long. This could lead to riots everywhere!

The events described above will not happen overnight, but 100% automation could lead to a world in complete chaos!

There are two possibilities: AI will either replace humans by taking over their jobs, or humans will use AI tools to make their work even better and smarter. The latter is more likely to happen, as throughout history, humans have proven to be smarter than any advanced technologies we have ever seen. Humans are better at adapting to situations, and with that sense, we are yet to witness some of the greatest works of humans in the future. If the human brain is capable of mimicking one of the complex systems called the brain (by developing Artificial Intelligence), then they have the capacity to outsmart or collaborate with advanced mechanisms like AI to become better in all dimensions.

How to channelize the future with AI? As of now, we don't have any best practices or regulations for using AI. So, we are in a state where the direction towards the future is unclear. If a regulatory department is created with its primary agenda being to closely monitor the behaviors, performance, and impact of AI on society, it will act as a shield to protect AI from being overutilized. Such regulations will help establish a clear line for AI and AI developers/companies to operate within their allocated territories. A list of jobs/duties must be derived that can be classified as "Only Humans," "Only AI," and "Human + AI."

For example, floor and washroom cleaning, garden maintenance, deliveries, gate security, public spot monitoring, etc., can be completely taken care of by AI and categorized as "Only AI."

Artistic works like story writing, music composition, filmmaking, craftwork, painting, and day-to-day jobs like meeting assistants, personal assistants to order necessary groceries at home, child care, bug finders in code development, realistic AR connections, predicting the work efficiency of a candidate, rescue operations, etc., are just a glimpse of the areas where humans can excel by collaborating with AI and can be categorized as "Human + AI" (H+AI or HAI) 😉

There are other tasks that can only be done by humans, but in the future, that count will be minimal. Most of the work will either be done by AI or through collaboration with AI...

Conclusion: It's not a great idea to blindly hate, celebrate, or be scared of AI's efficiencies. Throughout history, constant changes have occurred in every period since the evolution of humanity. This is just another step towards the future. The best way to navigate this is by embracing it!!!

Whether we let AI take over our skills or use AI to improve our skills, both options are in our hands.