Competing for jobs
AI agents may compete against humans for jobs, though history shows that when a technology replaces a human job, it creates new jobs that need more skills.
ENTITY
2 - AI
INTENT
3 - Other
TIMING
2 - Post-deployment
Risk ID
mit118
Domain lineage
6. Socioeconomic and Environmental
6.2 > Increased inequality and decline in employment quality
Mitigation strategy
1. Prioritize large-scale investment in human capital development: Mandate and incentivize comprehensive firm-led programs for **upskilling** employees in AI fluency and digital collaboration tools, and establish **reskilling** pathways to transition workers from high-risk, routine-task roles into emerging, high-value careers. This includes reforming tax codes to achieve capital parity between technological and human investment. 2. Redefine and restructure human-AI collaboration in workflows: Proactively redesign job roles to reallocate human effort from automatable, information-processing tasks toward uniquely human competencies, such as complex decision-making, creativity, framing strategic questions, emotional intelligence, and specialized oversight of AI systems. 3. Establish robust transitional and economic support mechanisms: Implement policy measures to mitigate the socioeconomic impact of job displacement, including ensuring the portability of essential worker benefits (e.g., health insurance and retirement vesting), increasing transparency regarding corporate AI adoption plans, and expanding support for public workforce development programs.