What Is a Human Worth? |
AI decouples economic value from human contribution, intensifying jobless growth.
AI cannot replace human empathy, judgment, or care, which are crucial but often undervalued economically.
A quadruple bottom line—purpose, people, profit, planet—redefines success, beyond just ROI.
Let’s start with a number that should reframe, not calm, the AI conversation. According to the ILO Employment and Social Trends 2026, 408 million people globally want paid work and cannot get it. The “jobs gap” goes far beyond unemployment; it includes the discouraged, the underemployed, and those who stopped looking. More than the entire population of the United States is, today, economically stranded.
And yet the dominant narrative around AI is one of reassurance: Automation will create more jobs than it destroys, systems will augment rather than replace, and disruption will be temporary. The tone suggests control. The data suggests drift.
AI is amplifying an already fragile one. The same ILO analysis of labour underutilization makes clear that traditional unemployment metrics underestimate reality; the gap between those who count and those who matter is widening.
What AI accelerates is not simply task automation. It accelerates a deeper shift: the decoupling of economic value from human contribution. Growth without jobs is no longer a warning sign—it is becoming a structural feature. Even the ILO notes that AI and automation could intensify pressures, particularly for those entering the labour market with skills that may no longer map cleanly onto demand.
May Day 2026 unfolds in unsettled political weather. Tariff walls rise. The US–China tech split deepens. Supply chains reroute, then reroute again. Fossil fuel use is going up while planetary health is in steady decline. Real wages still lag behind inflation shocks, and the pathways that once integrated workers into the global economy are losing momentum. Stability in headline unemployment........