If AI ends up doing everything, then how will humans earn money?
There are two answers: one with an optimistic view of the world and people (my choice), and one… let’s say, less optimistic. People will either sell engagement or vulnerability. Let’s unpack this.
A worker’s mind is a black box to an employer in the same way an AI bot or robot is a black box. Both human and artificial intelligence develop exponentially, but because the base exponent differs, AI will surpass humans in value contribution more and more each year. It might seem pointless to pay humans at all — and yet it isn’t.
The optimistic view: as a manager or employer, you need someone to share the burden of attention to the process. You need someone who wants the result to be achieved. You can forgive a colleague’s mistake, but forgiving a lack of interest is far harder. Look at yourself: how do you feel when Claude writes code that blatantly bypasses the test suite? Or when Nanobanana consistently fails to fix a tiny error in an image? Does it resemble frustration? For me — very much so, because I don’t understand what I’m supposed to do to make it work. If I were talking to a developer or designer, I could explain what I truly wanted and understand why they lacked motivation to choose the right path. With a machine, I either accept the rules of the game or we part ways. There is no place for negotiation or for its engagement.
The less optimistic view: as a manager or employer, you need a counterparty who depends on you. Someone afraid to do the job poorly — afraid of losing income, facing a lawsuit, or being humiliated in front of colleagues. Your developer will stay up all night crunching because “everyone else is crunching.” Your accountant will read every document they sign because they don’t want to go to jail. Compared to your employees, you hold the position of power.
Good luck trying to use that same position against a corporation worth hundreds of billions.
Today’s economy is called the attention economy, and this applies not only to the battle for consumer attention. In hiring, we are moving toward a competition for the attention of the people doing the work.