What do we do when AI transforms our work and identity?
"What should I learn to stay relevant?" As AI automation accelerates, this question weighs heavily on the minds of many. Yet the framing of the question may be more revealing than any answer that might provide temporary reassurance. By focusing narrowly on workforce relevance, the question exposes a fundamentally utilitarian view of learning—one that reduces education to mere economic utility.
Education wasn't always so tightly bound to the workforce. This fusion emerged in the late 18th and early 19th centuries with the Prussian education system, which standardized curricula to cultivate discipline, obedience, and practical skills in students. The United States embraced a similar model through the Common School Movement, advocating for universal public education that would simultaneously enhance social mobility and national productivity. In the 20th century, human capital theory and the expansion of student loans cemented this utilitarian view of education: students came to be seen as human capital, schools as credentialing institutions, and knowledge as a commodity expected to yield measurable returns.
This system has served well in an era when human labor drove economic production. But will it continue to hold in the coming age where much of the economic value is created by AI, not humans?
Systems Built for Yesterday's World
Our current institutions—economic, political, educational, and beyond—are fundamentally unprepared for the reality AI is creating. The disruption may feel distant today. When Duolingo faced backlash for replacing human contractors with AI, or when Klarna quietly rehired human agents after initially celebrating their AI chatbot's capabilities, it seemed the disruption would be gentler than expected. But technological adoption rarely follows a linear path. Once enough companies demonstrate the economic viability and social acceptability of AI automation, the remaining firms will quickly follow suit. (The swift, widespread layoffs during COVID offer a sobering example of this phenomenon.)
As AI makes human capital increasingly redundant in various domains, capitalism faces fundamental challenges. Current economic systems are not designed to handle the 10-20% unemployment rate that Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei predicts within the next five years. Traditional welfare systems were designed for temporary economic downturns, not permanent structural unemployment. As wealth becomes increasingly concentrated among those who control AI systems, society will need to fundamentally reimagine economic structures, from how wealth is distributed to how people access resources and participate in economic life.
Even democracy itself may be challenged. As corporations that command AI systems will become immensely wealthy and influential, we risk sliding toward neo-feudalism, where society depends on a small technological elite. The scale of this transformation requires both careful, proactive governance and an engaged citizenry willing to tackle these challenges.
Educational institutions face equally profound structural challenges. Paradoxically, as knowledge work becomes most vulnerable to displacement, we're likely to see intensified competition for traditional credentials. Law schools, medical programs, and advanced engineering degrees will likely experience surges in applications as students seek refuge behind institutional barriers and professional licensing requirements. Recent data confirm this trend: law school applications have risen 19.1% over the past year, and medical school enrollment has reached record highs.
Skilled trades that require physical dexterity will prove more resilient to automation, but students will be slow to embrace these paths as cultural perceptions lag behind technological advancements. This will lead to an oversupply of white-collar candidates, especially at the entry level. Eager to outcompete one another, students will be tempted to abuse AI tools for essays, problem sets, and projects, weakening their analytical capabilities precisely when these skills become most critical. Meanwhile, affluent families will double down on private tutoring, deepening educational stratification.
The Identity Crisis
Beyond these institutional failures lies a deeper challenge: as automation eliminates traditional jobs, it forces us to confront who we are without our work. As we spend our most productive years in the workforce, we have been conditioned to define ourselves through our professions. Our jobs provide not just income but structure, status, and purpose. When automation strips away this foundational piece of identity, many will face an existential void.
The question "What should I learn to stay relevant?" reveals a deeper anxiety: If machines can do what we do better, what makes us valuable? This crisis exposes how thoroughly we've conflated economic value with human purpose. It explains why the AI disruption feels so threatening, even to those whose jobs may remain safe for years to come. It's not just about employment; it's about the foundation of how we understand human worth in modern society.
The Opportunity
The coming disruption, painful as it may be, offers us an opportunity to reflect on what we've lost and to build something better. What becomes possible when we decouple human worth from economic productivity?
History offers compelling models for this shift. Plato's Academy pursued critical thinking and moral development, preparing students for lives of philosophical inquiry and civic leadership. India's Nalanda University emphasized spiritual and intellectual growth. Confucian academies focused on moral cultivation through engagement with classical texts. These institutions remind us that learning serves our deepest need for meaning and understanding in ways that transcend material utility.
A system rooted in these values would look vastly different from the one we have today. Without the pressure to funnel students toward rigid career paths, schools would likely shed most of their current standardization, retaining only what's essential for civic cohesion. This will free individuals to pursue meaningful challenges in any area that encourages self-reflection, creativity, and fulfillment. The artificial hierarchy that currently elevates STEM fields over arts, or academic disciplines over practical crafts, would dissolve. Learning communities could form around shared interests rather than age cohorts, bringing together diverse perspectives and experiences in ways our current grade-based system cannot. All fields will become “liberal arts” in the truest sense—disciplines that liberate us to become more fully human.
Ultimately, the question isn't whether AI will disrupt the world as we know it; it’s whether we'll resist it as a threat or embrace it as an opportunity. The path we take will determine not just how we learn, but who we become.