What comes after AI?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is going through a hype cycle, typical of new technologies. But far-sighted business leaders are already thinking about life after AI has become normalised.

Evolving the job market, not revolutionising it

AI is all about cutting costs by reducing staff numbers, right? Actually, current experience and a historical perspective suggests a more nuanced picture. Visions of an AI revolution drastically reducing jobs overlook three features of previous technology-led revolutions.

First, new jobs are needed to set up AI systems – AI does not set itself up for free. Just as the Internet spawned new generations of search engine optimizers and database integrators, AI needs new staff to manage its implementation. In December 2025, LinkedIn listed over 16,000 UK job ads focused on AI. In a world where consumers rely on AI recommendations, firms must ensure that AI-powered bots are working for them, not against them.

Secondly, new technologies can push legal frameworks to previously unanticipated limits. AI is following the path of internet development and the proliferation of personal data, which required new legislation and a new army of compliance staff. One estimate by consultancy Clyde & Co. suggests that 60-100,000 new jobs in GDPR compliance have been created in the UK. AI is already creating new jobs to monitor compliance with legislation, especially regarding misrepresentation and intellectual property rights.

Rising expectations

A third stage of AI evolution might further delay the utopia of infinite leisure while AI does all the work. New technologies have a habit of raising consumers’ expectations, and more jobs are created to fulfil these expectations. For example, the internet facilitated home delivery channels and fed ever-higher expectations - from “next week” to “next day” to “next hour” delivery, opening up new categories of jobs in distribution.

AI will follow historical precedents in raising expectations which generate new jobs. Already, AI - and machine learning in general - has improved diagnosis of many medical conditions, including those of the “worried well”. We should not be surprised if easier diagnosis leads to more employment in sectors providing solutions to real or imagined medical problems.

Beating the egg – how can AI facilitate agency?

Smart firms are now exploring what consumer societies will look like when AI has become mainstream. Previous “revolutions” suggest important market segments will want to take a step back because some important needs are no longer fulfilled. Right now, a buzzword is agency. In a world where decision-making is potentially outsourced to AI, what does it mean to be human?

We have been here before, and smart companies have understood the nature of these needs-based drivers, and fitted their technology around them, rather than vice versa. A good example is still the 1950s instant cake mix – a technological solution for busy housewives. It flopped, and researchers found an important reason why - housewives felt guilty about not performing their family role expectations. The solution? Dried egg was replaced with a need to crack an egg and beat it into the mix. This one step back in technology was important for giving back agency to the cook.

The internet similarly promised consumer products to make life easier, but again one step backwards often led to success. “Automated fridges” combined stock control with automated ordering, but were a technologic solution looking for a problem, and overlooked consumers’ need for agency.

We can learn from previous technology-led disruptors to visualise life in a post-AI world. In scenarios of automated and predictable uniformity, groups with spending power have sought out authenticity and a sense of control over their consumption. Those with less resources have had to settle for facsimile products and less control over their choices. Winning propositions in a post-AI world are likely to be those which bring people together in conditions perceived as authentic and distinctive. Aspirational consumers will seek to break out of the confines of an AI-governed world, while others will be resigned to it. Solutions by firms can be simple, such as adding the equivalent of “beating an egg” back into the process of using AI choice helpers, through to fully human experiences in which human contact and agency have their own value.