AI may be eating jobs, but it poses an even bigger threat
The AI conversation today focuses on systems. Which jobs will survive? How does education need to adapt? What happens to the economy when machines produce what humans used to? Governments are commissioning reports. Executives are restructuring. Educators are rewriting curricula. These are urgent questions. But there is one that matters just as much, and it’s the one we can actually do something about: What happens to us? Not our roles. Not our output. Our relationships, our sense of purpose, and our ability to connect with each other as human beings. I don’t pretend to have the answers to the economic and structural questions. But after two decades of working with leaders across 20 countries, I can see the writing on the wall, and what concerns me most isn’t which jobs disappear. It’s what disappears with them. The questions we need to start connecting Every major disruption from artificial intelligence cascades into a human connection problem, and until we name it, we can’t address it. Entry-level jobs are disappearing That’s a workforce pipeline problem, and it’s getting attention. But it’s also a relationship-development problem, and that part matters just as much. Entry-level roles are where people learn to work with people. Not the technical skills; AI can teach those faster than any training program. It’s where they learn the human skills needed for success. How to navigate a difficult colleague. How to earn trust when you have no authority. How to read a room, recover from a mistake, and build credibility one conversation at a time. If we eliminate the roles where those muscles get built, where do people learn to be someone others want to work alongside? Knowledge is becoming universally accessible When everyone has the same infinite pool of information, what differentiates us? Not what we know; AI knows more. What differentiates us is how we think, how we collaborate, and how we challenge each other’s assumptions. Critical thinking isn’t a solo act. It’s for