If AI Comes for Our Jobs, What Will We Do?
Can human purpose flourish in a world without work?
London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan has been in the news recently. He used his annual Mansion House speech to raise concerns about the risk of technological unemployment for London workers displaced by artificial intelligence. Computer Weekly reports that a taskforce is being set up to better understand the impact AI may have on jobs in the capital. Sadiq Khan has commented on this initiative on LinkedIn.
These concerns echo broader public debates. Elon Musk recently made headlines when he suggested at the U.S.–Saudi Investment Forum in Washington, D.C. that advances in AI could eventually make paid work “optional.” Such speculative claims reflect growing unease about the long-term implications of automation.
Historical figures have long warned about the disruptive potential of technological change. Political economists Karl Marx and John Maynard Keynes both explored how technological progress could displace labour, while modern commentators have cautioned that AI may exacerbate economic inequality and social disruption. Dolan, Raich, and Morán, writing in The European Business Review (2025), identify a range of contemporary thinkers who warn of large-scale labour displacement driven by automation.
Evidence of disruption is already emerging. In a Global Economics Analyst report, Goldman Sachs has estimated that generative AI technologies could threaten up to 300 million full-time jobs globally to automation. In the same period, BT announced plans to cut 55,000 jobs by 2030, with AI expected to account for 40% of these reductions.
If traditional employment declines, what will humans do? This question strikes at the heart of human purpose and identity, one that societies have rarely needed to confront on such a scale.
Philosophical traditions offer competing views on the intrinsic value of work. Calvinism frames work as a moral calling, in which disciplined labour is understood as part of a godly life. In The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Max Weber famously described work as an “absolute end in itself,” discouraging idle leisure and framing labour as a moral obligation. By contrast, as we will see shortly, other commentators argue for a reduction in the working week and an expansion of leisure.
The potential consequences of a world without work are vividly explored in Pixar’s WALL·E (2008). In the animated film, humans have abandoned a polluted Earth and live aboard the spaceship Axiom, where all needs are fully automated. The ship is governed by an AI autopilot, AUTO, which prioritises rigid directives over human judgment. Humans drift through their existence on hover chairs, consuming entertainment via holographic screens, physically inactive and largely disengaged from meaningful agency. The film presents a dystopian view of a society fully automated but stripped of human purpose.
Psychologist Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs helps frame this concern. In A Theory of Human Motivation (1943), A.H. Maslow argued that humans are motivated to satisfy basic needs, including physiological and safety needs, before pursuing higher needs such as belonging, esteem, and self-actualisation. If AI and machines increasingly provide for basic needs, societies will need to create new pathways to self-actualisation (ones that are beyond work). Without them, humans risk becoming passive, dependent, and directionless, much like the future depicted in WALL·E.
How might such a future be funded?
Two commonly proposed solutions for supporting a society in which work is no longer central are robot taxation and universal basic income (UBI).
Robot Tax
In 2017, Bill Gates suggested taxing AI and robotics when companies use AI or robots to replace human workers, helping to fund retraining and social support. Although the European Parliament debated the idea, it ultimately rejected a formal robot tax. South Korea introduced a robot tax but reduced tax incentives for automated production in 2017, a move widely interpreted as discouraging excessive automation (Merola, 2022). More recently, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders has revived discussions of robot taxation in It’s OK to Be Angry About Capitalism. Similar ideas are being explored at a research and policy level in countries including France, Belgium, Japan, and Canada.
Universal Basic Income (UBI)
UBI is frequently proposed as a response to AI-driven job displacement. Political philosopher Juliana Uhuru Bidadanure defines UBI as “a monthly cash grant given to all members of a community without means test, regardless of personal desert, with no strings attached, and, under most proposals, at a sufficiently high level to enable a life free from economic insecurity” (Bidadanure, 2019). Finland trialled a UBI between 2017 and 2018, finding improvements in wellbeing but little impact on employment. Other experiments and pilots have taken place in Canada, the United States, Brazil, and Wales. In 2025, residential citizens of the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean, introduced a national universal basic income scheme with quarterly payments of $200.
Working solutions
Rather than accepting a future without work, another approach is to rethink how humans and machines work together. This augmented model recognises that while AI and robotics will transform work, human labour and judgement should remain central.
Several strategies have been proposed:
- Pausing AI development
Some prominent figures called for a temporary pause on advanced AI research in 2023 as part of a Future of Life Institute initiative, and AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton has publicly warned of AI’s risks. However, such a pause is unlikely given intense global competition and rising corporate investment. - Reduced working hours
Keynes famously predicted a 15-hour working week, and Marx saw shorter working hours as a natural outcome of technological progress. Other historical figures that support reduced hours include Mill, Shaw, Franklin. Countries including Iceland, New Zealand, Japan, the UK, Ireland, the US, and Canada have trialled four-day working weeks, often reporting improved wellbeing and productivity. South Cambridgeshire’s trial is notable for extending this model to blue-collar workers. - Contingent work models
Contingent work involves flexible, non-permanent employment offered on demand rather than through stable contracts. Expanded through the gig economy, this model could complement UBI by allowing people to supplement a guaranteed income with flexible work.
We are moving toward an AI-dominated economy that may disproportionately benefit a small group of technology owners while undermining human purpose and agency. Addressing this challenge will require deliberate planning, regulation, and a reimagining of the role of work. Like climate change, it is a global issue that demands coordinated and serious attention rather than firms being swept along by the emerging technology.
Resources
Adams, Abigail. 2025. ‘Elon Musk Suggests AI Will Make Work “Optional” and Money “Irrelevant” in the Near Future’. People, November 20. https://people.com/elon-musk-suggests-ai-will-make-work-optional-and-money-irrelevant-11853603.
Bidadanure, Juliana Uhuru. 2019. ‘The Political Theory of Universal Basic Income’. Annual Review of Political Science 22 (1): 481–501. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-polisci-050317-070954.
Dolan, Simon L., Mario Raich, and Pedro César Martínez-Morán. 2025. ‘Reimagining Employment: Navigating the Promises and Perils of Artificial Intelligence’. Business. The European Business Review, July 10. https://www.europeanbusinessreview.com/reimagining-employment-navigating-the-promises-and-perils-of-artificial-intelligence/.
Future of Life Institute. 2023. ‘Pause Giant AI Experiments: An Open Letter’. March 22. https://futureoflife.org/open-letter/pause-giant-ai-experiments/.
Hatzius, Jan, Joseph Briggs, Devesh Kodnani, and Giovanni Pierdomenico. 2023. The Potentially Large Effects of Artificial Intelligence on Economic Growth. Goldman Sachs Global Economics Analyst. https://www.key4biz.it/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Global-Economics-Analyst_-The-Potentially-Large-Effects-of-Artificial-Intelligence-on-Economic-Growth-Briggs_Kodnani.pdf.
James, Malcolm. 2017. ‘Could Bill Gates’ Plan to Tax Robots Really Lead to a Brighter Future for All?’ The Conversation, March 10. https://theconversation.com/could-bill-gates-plan-to-tax-robots-really-lead-to-a-brighter-future-for-all-73395.
Khan, Sadiq. 2025. ‘Two New Announcements in Our Mission to Seize the Opportunity of AI: Creating a London AI Taskforce and Free Skills Training’. LinkedIn, LinkedIn, December. https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7417496762862587904/.
Kleinman, Zoe, and Chris Vallance. 2023. ‘AI “Godfather” Geoffrey Hinton Warns of Dangers as He Quits Google’. News. BBC News, May 2. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-65452940.
Maslow, A. H. 1943. ‘A Theory of Human Motivation.’ Psychological Review 50 (4): 370–96. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0054346.
Merola, Rossana. 2022. ‘Inclusive Growth in the Era of Automation and AI: How Can Taxation Help?’ Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence 5 (May): 867832. https://doi.org/10.3389/frai.2022.867832.
Prodhan, Georgina. 2017. ‘European Parliament Calls for Robot Law, Rejects Robot Tax’. News. Reuters, February 17. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-robots-lawmaking-idUSKBN15V2KM/.
Sanders, Bernie, and John Nichols. 2023. It’s OK to Be Angry About Capitalism. Crown Publishing Group.
Saran, Cliff. 2026. ‘Mayor of London Sadiq Khan Calls for Urgent Action to Boost the Capital’s AI Workforce’. Computer Weekly, January 16. https://www.computerweekly.com/news/366637417/Mayor-of-London-Sadiq-Khan-calls-for-urgent-action-to-boost-the-capitals-AI-workforce.
Sweney, Mark. 2023. ‘BT to Axe up to 55,000 Jobs by 2030 as It Pushes into AI’. News. The Guardian, May 18. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/may/18/bt-cut-jobs-telecoms-group-workforce.
Tamim, Baba. 2023. ‘Robot-Tax: Bernie Sanders Backs Bill Gates to Kill Automation Impact on Humans’. Interesting Engineering, February 22. https://interestingengineering.com/culture/bernie-sanders-bill-gates-robot-automation-impact-book.
Weber, Max. 1930. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Translated by Talcott Parsons. Scribner. https://archive.org/details/protestantethics00webe.