Are We Ready for an AI-driven Future?

Credit: AI-generated image.

Everywhere you turn these days, you come across an article about Artificial Intelligence. We have repeatedly seen how AI and its agents have the potential to automate tasks, enhance productivity, improve decision-making, and drive breakthrough scientific discoveries.

At the same time, we have watched with growing concern as warnings emerge about mass job displacement, rising youth unemployment, ethical distortions, and the spread of misinformation.

Just three years after Generative AI, and its most well-known product, ChatGPT, was released to the public, AI has become the most important technology story of the decade, and possibly of the century. Today, one in every six people worldwide uses generative AI tools.

But although AI appears to be everywhere, we are still in the early stages of its adoption and we know relatively little about what an AI-driven economy will actually look like. Data available about its impact is only beginning to send signals on what the future may hold.

One thing, however, is clear: we cannot afford to wait with our arms crossed. Societies, policymakers, business leaders, and workers must prepare now for a future powered by AI. The pressing question is how. How do we train young professionals, students, professors, and workers across industries at the speed this transformation demands?

In response, the GFCC launched Task Force One: Building Human Advantage in the AI Economy, under the leadership of Prof. Aleks Subic, CEO and Vice-Chancellor of Aston University.

This global effort examines how to strengthen capabilities that empower humanity in the age of AI. Its goal is to assess policy, education, skills, and ethics that enable the use of AI as a driver of innovation, inclusion, and long-term prosperity.

One of the task force’s first initiatives is the Global Survey on Humans and AI, designed to collect qualitative data on the current relationship between humans and intelligent systems and to identify the critical human capabilities required to build prosperous economies and societies in an AI-driven economy.

While the survey remains open until February 28, data collected so far has shown that senior-management-level respondents from over 15 countries consider current education and workforce systems to be poorly or inadequately preparing people for this transition. This is a red flag, particularly given that the labor market has already begun to absorb the effects of AI.

Drawing on a large-scale dataset of job postings from the pre- and post-ChatGPT periods, new released research shows that AI is already reshaping the nature of work and the scope of jobs across a broad segment of the economy. The data indicates that AI’s impact is unfolding rapidly, with jobs simultaneously exposed to automation and augmentation—contrary to many expectations.

The accelerated pace of this transformation has the potential to create a significant "transition gap". While we know AI will eventually change jobs and even create new roles, we face a period of deep uncertainty regarding how long it will take for new offers to materialize and how to build a pathway for workers in the interim.

Despite these challenges, we know that the best way forward is one of co-evolution and partnership. As AI systems become more capable, they offer us a chance to redesign work around human ingenuity. This collaboration—where AI serves as a powerful cognitive partner—promises to unlock new levels of innovation and even help us find solutions for global challenges that were previously out of reach.

A thriving future will only be possible if we collectively understand the structural challenges ahead and act with the speed the transformation demands. The goal is to ensure that as our tools evolve, our collective human agency expands alongside them.

You can contribute your insights on the critical human capabilities needed to succeed in an AI-driven world by participating in the survey.

Help us build a pathway toward an inclusive and sustainable future with AI.