The Value of Professions Will Erode
Just to remind, if you haven’t please read the first part of this series here. I am trying to wrap my head around the macroeconomic impact of AI from a labor, and circulation of value through labor standpoint.
We are interdependent. At least still so. I personally always loved the idea that our ability to serve others defines the reward we get. “If a person does not like his income, all he has to do is to have a good long look at his service.”
So far, AI has only automated low-skill tasks; but it will reach into analytical and professional domains. Perception, economic value and status of individuals who perform such professions will be restructured as well. It might go both ways.
Despite legal protections, the market price of a service will decline if an AI can provide it faster and cheaper. Skills, education, and effort we invest into those professions don’t disappear but their economic returns diminish.
In this sense, AI compresses the price of knowledge work to its computational cost and undermines the traditional link between effort and economic reward.
Universal Basic Income? No Thanks.
When you ask ChatGPT about this, it zealously defends and explain how UBI can help. I guess that part is specifically embedded so. Gemini is more agnostic and gave a broader response.
Here is what ChatGPT says:
– It keeps consumer spending alive when employment declines.
– It prevents demand from falling below sustainable levels.
– It allows people to participate in markets even without wages.
But UBI doesn’t create value in the Smithian sense and individual sense. It redistributes existing economic output. It works because someone else (capital owners or AI-driven firms) is still generating economic surplus.
If you were given the option, would you accept UBI?
I personally would not accept it. I am sure I would be asked to give up something. Even if not now, maybe in the future. every couple years rules could get tighter and worse?
What if UBI receivers are asked not to go to certain parts of the city, or not to go out at certain times of the day?
A Future of Mass Self-Employment?
According to Forbes, we are entering to the era of solopreneurs. Number of self employed broke new records.
There are many scenarios but the one I feel most likely is fragmented millions of micro-enterprises instead of eliminating work entirely.
– Big companies operate with almost no employees, powered by AI.
– Millions of individuals become self-employed specialists, offering niche services, custom solutions, creative insights.
– Everyone becomes a one-person firm, navigating global micro-markets.
Here is why I think Boontext should exist in the new world.
Self-employment requires constant presence, responsiveness, and customer nurturing. Missing a conversation can mean missing a client.
The entrepreneurial spirit and it’s challenges doesn’t shrink, it just will become hyper-personalized and targeted.
This is why I believe the greatest demand for AI agents will come from small teams, solopreneurs, micro-firms. They’ll need AI not as a replacement, but as a scalable extension of themselves.
This is the space I want to build in. This is the mission of BoonText: empowering small teams and independent workers with enterprise-grade AI tools to thrive in a world where value creation becomes decentralized.
Will There Be a Black Market for AI?
Another possibility until societies accept AI is black markets for AI services:
Someone without good insurance, would go to an AI hospital if it’s the same without human doctors. Can we stop people from doing horrible things for money? Access to intelligence / or affordable knowledge might become a parallel economy.
A Final Thought
Adam Smith measured economic value through labor, capital, and effort. AGI challenges all three.
We are not just automating work while building agentic systems, we are rewriting the definition of economic value, human worth, and social contracts.