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Imagine waking up to find that the job you built your entire life and identity around can be outperformed by AI.
In this talk, AI futurist Akram Awad explores how this is becoming a reality for many people.
But as they lose a sense of identity, Akram says we need to develop the spaces and communities to help them rediscover who they really are.
He offers a framework for that reimagining.
Imagine waking up tomorrow and realizing your job.
Everything that you have trained for, everything that made your parents proud, everything that made you feel useful, is no longer needed.
Not because you've done anything wrong, but simply because an AI algorithm can now do it better.
Take the example of Elena, a medical doctor in Dubai.
For years, she was trusted with life and death decisions.
But today, AI systems can diagnose diseases, can design treatments, can even conduct consultations.
In fact, our hospital is already considering cutting the head count of human physicians.
Elena is wondering if AI machines can take over most of medicine, what is left that only a human doctor can do?
For millions like Elena around the world, this is not science fiction anymore.
This is an unfolding reality, and the part that worries me the most is that we might be heading toward not just a job crisis, but also a purpose crisis.
But what if we're looking at this the wrong way?
What if AI isn't the end of purpose, but rather the beginning for a new way to imagine it?
I work with country leaders around the world to shape national AI agendas, build digital economies and design cities of the future.
And no matter where I go and how technical the agenda is, I almost always end up hearing the same questions.
The first one is practical.
If AI is going to take over our jobs, how are we going to survive?
How will we pay our bills?
Now, that is the elephant in the room, yes.
And indeed governments and economists must start working very urgently to redesign the very systems that have been sustaining our communities.
But that's not the question I want to focus on today, because the second question runs even deeper.
Will AI make us useless?
If we don't work, then who are we?
If I don't produce, do I even still matter?
See, for centuries, We've tied our identity and our worth to what we do.
Farmers, factory workers, coders, consultants.
Work and jobs became the organizing and defining principle of our society in modern life.
But it wasn't always this way.
Before the Industrial Revolution, our identity came from faith, from family, from community.
Work was part of life, but it wasn't the very definition of it.
Then came industrialization, and we didn't just industrialize production.
We also industrialized identity.
What do you do became shorthand for who are you.
And AI today is dismantling fully that model.
AI is automating tasks across the board in manufacturing, in logistics, in design, in customer services, even in creative work.
AI today can compose music, can design codes, can illustrate books, and way much more.
In fact, the World Economic Forum predicts that by this year 2025, AI will be doing more tasks than humans and hundreds of millions of jobs are at risk.
But this isn't just about jobs.
This is about meaning.
This is about dignity.
This is about what happens when the one thing that once gave us value becomes obsolete.
And if we're not careful we might all be heading toward a Great Depression, but this time not of income, but of identity.
Let me introduce a framework for human roles in the age of AI.
I call it the gap circles. the guardians, the adapters and the pioneers.
Let's first start with the guardians.
These are people that will be driven by our survival as a humanity.
They'll be working in medicine, in biology, in pharmacology, in climate sciences, but even their roles will be heavily redefined and reshaped by AI.
Take the same person, Elena, the medical doctor. now a human validator in an AI-led immunology lab.
The lead scientist in her lab isn't a human, but an AI trained on global biomedical data.
Elena leverages her medical knowledge to ensure that the output is ethically sound and human-relevant.
Next, we have the pioneers.
Those are driven by curiosity rather than survival.
And to be clear, these two don't always go hand in hand.
They'll be the physicists, the scientists, the explorers, the astronauts, the philosophers.
A logistics manager whose job has been fully replaced by AI might find himself leaning to an old passion for astronomy and stargazing and planetary systems.
And he uses AI-powered upscaling tools to become a cosmic systems architect.
What a mouthful for a job title.
Anyway, he works with an AI that is trained on decades of astrophysics data.
Together, they simulate the cosmos.
And they explore together what lies in the universe behind our understanding.
And maybe one day you'll never know.
They might discover aliens.
Sandwiched between the two are the adapters the largest and probably most overlooked circle or group.
Those won't be measured by their output or their titles, but rather by how they live, how they connect and how they create meaning.
A graphic designer might find herself rethinking her place in this world, as AI automates most of her work.
So she pivots to community-based creativity.
She runs community art workshops, takes care of her father and runs and hosts a podcast on emotional intelligence.
Now, she's not traditionally employed, yes, but she deeply contributes to her community.
Now, some of you might be thinking, this sounds like a new class system.
And in some ways, it is.
But it's not going to be based on wealth or status.
The guardians and the pioneers might be the elites of the future, but it's not for what they own, but rather for what they contribute.
So legacy, not money, becomes the currency of aspiration in the future.
And these circles are likely to be fluid.
So a guardian today might become an adapter in the future.
An adapter might push themselves to become a pioneer and so on.
And as AI continues to reshape work, these roles might shrink in their scope, but they will certainly expand in their meaning or value.
And make no mistake, the adapters themselves will not be passive.
They will also seek recognition, not wealth accumulation.
Because, in a world that is driven less by money and more by contribution, recognition becomes the new status symbol.
Now you might ask, how can we make this real?
First, we need to rethink how we compensate contribution.
As AI reduces the need for traditional work, We need to design new systems that can bring value and security beyond the paychecks, ensuring that everyone has guaranteed access to the minimum level of resources that would allow them to live with dignity.
But beyond that foundation, the additional earnings people will be able to make should depend on how they spend their time, through the small, meaningful acts of contribution that they can bring to their society, like caring for an aging parent or planting a public garden, through the connections they nurture and the new meaning they add in their communities.
Second, we need to rewire education, not only for skills, but also for character, emotional intelligence ethics resilience, creativity.
Education must prepare people not only to earn, but also to belong.
Third, we must invest in our emotional infrastructure.
As jobs disappear, so will identities.
And we need the spaces and the communities that can help people rediscover who they really are.
And finally, we need the ecosystem that would allow us to test all of these ideas today.
Cities and campuses where we can pilot new ways for contribution, for recognition and for belonging.
Imagine waking up every morning to a daily feed not filled with stock prices but these beautiful small contributions around you.
Who helped a child how to read today?
Who composed a new music that lifted spirits?
Who mentored someone in line?
Who gave an inspiring TikTok today?
Each of these tasks and acts might be small in their nature, but together they become the heartbeat of the society.
And let's be honest, this isn't just about policy.
This is about the very foundation of our society.
Our communities have been built on a simple loop.
People work, earn, accumulate and spend.
Government tax that labor to fund public life.
But in a world where that traditional work disappears, that loop breaks.
The assumption that productivity means purpose or that income means contribution.
All of that has to be revisited and reimagined.
So the real question in the future isn't, will AI make us useless?
But rather, what do we choose to become when we no longer have to work just to survive?
And if that future sounds a bit abstract, I want each one of you to think about the most meaningful and special moments in your life.
The ones that you remember when you are either alone or surrounded by those who you love.
Did these moments happen at your desk?
Or were they moments of connection, of creativity and compassion?
That is the future we can and we should build.
But it won't happen by accident.
It will take policies, yes, but even more, a cultural reset.
We must stop teaching people that the worth will only be measured by their output, and we should start preparing people for a future and a world where work is no longer the center of identity.
Because the age of AI isn't just about testing our technology.
It's also about testing our imagination.
So let's imagine better.
Let's take this moment not as an ending, but as an invitation to rediscover purpose, to redefine value and to reclaim the very essence of what it truly means to be a human in the age of AI.
Thank you.
That was Akram Awad speaking at TED at BCG in Dubai in 2025.
If you're curious about TED's curation, find out more at TED.com slash curation guidelines.
And that's it for today.
TED Talks Daily is part of the TED Audio Collective.
This talk was fact-checked by the TED Research Team and produced and edited by our team Martha Estefanos, Oliver Friedman, Brian Green, Lucy Little and Tansika Sangmarnivong.
This episode was mixed by Christopher Faisy-Bogan.
Additional support from Emma Taubner and Daniela Balarezo.
I'm Elise Hugh.
I'll be back tomorrow with a fresh idea for your feed.
Thanks for listening.
