Meaningful work in peril? Preserving self-efficacy in the age of artificial intelligence

Meaningful work in peril? Preserving self-efficacy in the age of artificial intelligence

연구 분야: Safety

학회: AI and Ethics

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming our socioeconomic landscape. Unprecedented advances in knowledge acquisition, human augmentation, and wealth creation are accompanied by equally unprecedented challenges from AI-driven job automation and displacement. This commentary explores AI’s impact on the experience of meaningful work as a function of self-efficacy—an individual’s belief in their capability to execute behaviors necessary to achieve specific goals. Specifically, we posit that vocational self-efficacy, cultivated through experiences of meaningful work, constitutes an essential component of individual and collective wellbeing and flourishing. We critically examine how evolving AI-labor relations may impact work significance, highlighting AI’s dual role as both an enabler and a threat to vocational self-efficacy. We conclude by outlining actionable recommendations for civil society, policymakers, and the private sector aimed at cultivating meaning and self-efficacy—both as an ethical imperative and a means to foster societal cohesion in the age of AI.