Will AI Make Humans Useless? | Akram Awad
Imagine waking up tomorrow and realising your job, everything you trained for, everything that made your parents proud, everything that made you feel useful, is no longer needed. Not because you did anything wrong, but simply because an AI algorithm can now do it better.
Think about Elena, a doctor in Dubai. For years, she was trusted with life-and-death decisions. But today, AI systems can diagnose illnesses, design treatments, and even conduct consultations. In fact, the hospital is already thinking about reducing its human doctors. Elena wonders, if AIs can take over most of medicine, what's left that only a human doctor can do? For millions like Elena around the world, this isn't science fiction anymore. It's a reality unfolding, and the part that worries me most is that we might be heading not just for a jobs crisis, but also a purpose crisis. But what if we're looking at this the wrong way? What if AI isn't the end of purpose, but the beginning of a new way to imagine it?
I work with national leaders worldwide to shape national AI agendas, build digital economies, and design future cities. No matter where I go, or how tech-heavy the agenda, I always end up hearing the same questions. The first is practical. If AI is going to take our jobs, how will we survive? How will we pay our bills? This is the "elephant in the room." Governments and economists really need to start working urgently to redesign the very systems that have supported our societies. But that's not the question I want to focus on today, because the second question is deeper. Will AI make us useless? If we don't work, who are we? If I don't produce, will I still matter? For centuries, we've linked our identity and our worth to what we do. Farmers, factory workers, programmers, consultants – work and jobs became the organising principle and the determinant of our society in modern life. But it wasn't always this way. Before the Industrial Revolution, our identity came from faith, from family, from community. Work was part of life, but it wasn't its definition.
Then came industrialisation, and we didn't just industrialise production; we industrialised identity. "What do you do?" became shorthand for "Who are you?" And AI today is dismantling this entire model. AI is automating tasks across the board. In manufacturing, logistics, design, customer service, even creative work. AI today can compose music, design logos, illustrate books, and so much more. In fact, the World Economic Forum predicts that by 2025, AI will be doing more tasks than humans, and hundreds of millions of jobs will be at risk. But this isn't just about jobs. This is about meaning. This is about dignity. This is what happens when the one thing that once gave us worth becomes obsolete. And if we're not careful, we could all be heading for a great depression. But this time, not of income, but of identity.
Let me introduce a framework for human roles in the age of AI. I call them the GAP circles: Guardians, Agents, and Pioneers. Let's start first with the Guardians. These are the people who will be driven by our survival as humanity. They will work in medicine, biology, pharmacy, climate science. But even their roles will be significantly redefined and reshaped by AI. Take Elena, the doctor, now working as a human auditor in an AI-led immunology lab. The lead scientist in her lab isn't human, but an AI trained on global biomedical data. Elena uses her medical knowledge to ensure the outputs are ethically sound and human-relevant.
Next, we have the Pioneers. These are driven by curiosity rather than survival. And to be clear, these two don't always go hand-in-hand. They are physicists, scientists, explorers, astronauts, philosophers. A logistics manager whose job has been completely replaced by AI might find themselves drawn to an old passion for astronomy, stargazing, and planetary systems. They use AI-powered upgrade tools to become a cosmic systems engineer. What a complex job title, anyway. They work with AI trained on decades of astrophysics data. Together, to simulate the universe. And they explore together what lies beyond our understanding in the cosmos. And maybe one day, you never know, they might discover aliens.
Falling in between are the Agents. The largest, and perhaps most overlooked, group. Their outcomes won't be measured by their outputs or their titles, but rather by how they live, how they connect, and how they create meaning. A graphic designer might find herself rethinking her place in this world, as AI automates most of her work, so she focuses on community creativity. She runs community art workshops, cares for her father, and hosts a podcast on emotional intelligence. Now, she's not working traditionally, yes, but she's contributing deeply to her community.
Now, some of you might think this sounds like a new class system, and in some ways, it is. But it's not based on wealth or status. Guardians and Pioneers might be the elites of the future, but not because of what they own, but because of what they contribute. Legacy, not money, becomes the currency of future ambition. And these circles are likely to be fluid, so today's Guardian might become a Transformer tomorrow. An Agent might push themselves to become a Pioneer, and so on. As AI continues to reshape work, these roles might shrink in scope, but they will certainly expand in meaning or value. And make no mistake, the Agents themselves won't be passive. They will also seek recognition, not wealth accumulation, because in a world no longer driven by money, contribution becomes the new status symbol.
Now, you might ask, how can we make this a reality? First, we need to rethink how we compensate contribution. As AI reduces the need for traditional work, we need to design new systems that can achieve value and security beyond paychecks. Ensuring everyone has access to a minimum of resources that would allow them to live with dignity. But beyond this foundation, any additional profits people are able to make would depend on how they spend their time through small, meaningful contributionary acts they can offer to their community, like caring for an elderly parent or tending a public garden. Through the connections they nurture and the new meaning they add in their communities.
Second, we need to reorient education not just for skills, but for character. Emotional intelligence, ethics, resilience, creativity. Education should prepare people not just to earn, but to belong. Third, we need to invest in our emotional infrastructure. As jobs disappear, so will identities. And we need spaces and communities that can help people rediscover their truth. And finally, we need an ecosystem that allows us to test all these ideas today. Cities and universities where we can experiment with new ways of contributing, recognising, and belonging.
Imagine waking up every morning to a daily news feed not filled with stock prices, but instead these beautiful small contributions all around you. Who helped a child, how someone read today, who composed new music that lifted spirits, who guided someone online, who gave an inspiring TED talk today. Each of these tasks and actions might be small in nature, but together they become the heartbeat of a community. And let's be honest, this isn't just about politics. This is about the foundation of our society. Our societies have been built on a simple loop. People work, earn, accumulate, and spend. The government taxes labour to fund public life. But in a world where this traditional work is disappearing, this loop breaks. The assumption that productivity equals purpose, or that income equals contribution. All of that needs to be rethought and reimagined.
So the real question for the future isn't, will AI make us useless? But rather, what do we choose to become when we no longer have to work just to survive? And if this future sounds a bit abstract, I want each of you to think about the most meaningful and private moments of your lives, those you remember when you're alone or surrounded by loved ones. Did these moments happen at your desk, or were they moments of connection, creativity, and empathy? This is the future we can and must build. But it won't happen by accident. Yes, it will require policies, but more than that, a cultural reset. We must stop teaching people that their worth will be measured only by their output. And we must start preparing people for a future and a world where work is no longer the centre of identity. Because the age of AI isn't just about testing our technology. It's also about testing our imagination. So let's imagine better. Let's take this moment not as an end, but as a call to rediscover purpose, redefine worth, and reclaim the essence of what it truly means to be human in the age of AI.
Thank you.