How Automation Will Change Work, Purpose, and Meaning

The promise of AI and automation raises new questions about the role of work in our lives. Most of us will remain focused for decades to come on activities of physical or financial production, but as technology provides services and goods at ever-lower cost, human beings will be compelled to discover new roles – roles that aren’t necessarily tied to how we conceive of work today. As we unmoor from traditional pursuits, how will we define our own sense of purpose, meaning, and value? Perhaps we will have to find new ways of defining ourselves that are not rooted in the labor we do.