What If We’re Building a Post-Labor World By Mistake?
TL;DR: The narrative that AI will eliminate jobs isn't neutral. It's financially motivated, strategically hyped, and increasingly self-fulfilling. Leaders need to respond with critical thinking, not blind adoption.
I was listening to Diary of a CEO when Geoffrey Hinton - a pioneer in AI, sometimes called the "godfather" of it - casually suggested that his grandchildren should consider becoming plumbers. Not software engineers. Not researchers. Plumbers. Because AI, he warned, is coming for the white-collar jobs first.
Cool. Guess I’ll go cancel my calendar and start a sourdough blog or something.
That same week, I watched David Shapiro’s Post-Labor Economics series on YouTube (highly recommend). It’s thoughtful, measured, grounded in actual economics. And yet, when it ended, I didn’t feel smarter. I felt unsettled. Not because he was wrong. But because it felt inevitable. Like the future was already written, and I’d just been briefed on the terms.
And here’s where it gets personal: I lead People strategy in my org. I care about the people whose jobs and identities are tangled up in these shifts. I care about my own work: what it means, what it’s becoming. But more than that, I’m a mom. My 7-year-old isn’t asking me career questions yet, but I’m already preemptively bad at answering them. “Well, sweetie, when you grow up you might be managing neural net integrations for synthetic client avatars. Or maybe baking sourdough and bartering for electricity.”
But how do I guide anyone, when I’m standing in this fog too?
That’s the part I can’t stop thinking about.
Why are we hearing this everywhere? AI conferences. LinkedIn posts. Podcasts and articles. Group chats that used to be about dogs. Suddenly everyone is certain: AI is coming and everything will change.
Here’s a theory: maybe it’s not prophecy. Maybe it’s marketing.
Manufactured Inevitability
Let’s follow the money. Who benefits from this apocalyptic job-loss narrative?
AI startups chasing bloated valuations
VCs trying to sell the next big disruption story
Big Tech consolidating power
Media fishing for clicks
This isn’t a warning. It’s a sales pitch.
When fear drives decision-making, three things happen:
CEOs panic: No leader wants to be the one who "missed AI," so they cut teams and throw money at half-baked tools.
Governments scramble: Policy pivots fast to fund or regulate "the future" before fully understanding the present.
People polarize: Some spiral into an AI-fueled learning frenzy, or at least pretend they do on LinkedIn. Others reject it outright. No middle ground, just two camps yelling past each other, egged on by algorithms that love a good echo chamber.
And just like that, a speculative future becomes reality. Not because AI demanded it. But because we acted like it already had.
Tech Determinism Is Lazy Thinking
There’s a seductive idea that technology has a set path. That progress is linear. That we just have to adjust.
But that’s not how this works. Technologies are tools. The outcomes depend on how we use them—and who benefits.
We’ve seen this before:
Automating customer service long before chatbots could hold a coherent sentence.
Slashing jobs for "efficiency" without redesigning the work.
Buying AI performance tools that do... what exactly? Nobody checked.
This isn't innovation. It's crisis cosplay. And it makes a mess.
We’re Building the Plane Mid-Crash
Here’s the kicker: the panic-driven shift toward a "post-labor" economy isn't inevitable. It's a choice. One we’re making fast, and badly.
What if we:
Treated AI like a colleague, not a conqueror?
Assessed its actual capabilities before rewriting job architectures?
Focused on augmentation over automation?
You know, like rational people?
The loudest voices aren’t the wisest. They’re the most invested.
If You’re in HR, Ops, or a C-suite Seat
Pause. Ask:
Who’s selling me this narrative?
What does the tech actually do today, not in 2035?
What problem am I solving—and is AI the best tool for it?
Sometimes, the most strategic thing you can do is... nothing. Wait. Observe. Keep humans in the loop. Don’t fire your customer support team because someone on a panel said it was 2029.
The robots might be coming. But they’re not ready. And frankly, neither are we.
Quote to Steal for Your Next All-Hands:
"We’re not replacing humans with AI. We’re replacing panic with strategy."
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