March 13, 2025
Observation
For as long as we can remember, people have been imagining a future filled with machines. Now that AI has become part of our daily conversations, discussions about whether AI will replace humans are louder than ever.
But instead of focusing on fear or competition, I’m curious about a different question: As AI grows, what new roles and understanding of human nature might emerge?
This is not a prediction or conclusion, but an observation of the shifts that are already happening, and an open look at what might be possible. In this article, I want to share my insights on the positive possibilities.
AI is now handling many repetitive cognitive tasks. It drafts contracts, analyzes data, responds to simple customer inquiries, and processes large amounts of information. Humans are no longer spending as much time on routine work.
Naturally, this raises a question. If AI takes care of these tasks, what will humans focus on?
Some observations suggest that AI could free us to focus on work that requires creativity, empathy, and complex thinking. For example, lawyers are using AI to scan thousands of documents so they can focus on making better arguments. Doctors are using AI to process medical records, freeing up more time to be with patients.
As AI makes industries more efficient, it may also allow society to invest more in areas that have been under-supported for a long time, such as mental health, social work, emotional intelligence and ethics.
Jobs like therapy, education, and social care are often underpaid and stretched thin. With AI's growing ability to handle structured and repetitive tasks, there could finally be enough room to give these essential roles more attention and care.
In education, AI is no longer just managing paperwork. It has become intelligent enough to teach the basics, adapt to each student’s pace, and patiently rephrase and repeat knowledge until understanding happens. It can answer repetitive questions without judgment, and ensure no student is left behind on foundational skills.
This shift could free teachers from spending time on topics that AI can effectively handle. Instead, teachers may focus more on discussing open-ended, complex questions — topics without easy answers that require human insight and creativity. Since AI is built on existing knowledge, it may struggle to guide students through emerging or controversial topics, or those that require emotional and ethical nuance. Teachers could take on the vital role of helping students explore ideas that are less discussed but deeply important to society.
AI is also changing the way we think about social and emotional labor. In areas like customer service, AI chatbots and virtual assistants can already handle simple requests, but human interaction is still irreplaceable for situations that require trust, negotiation, and deep understanding. Instead of making these jobs obsolete, AI may elevate their importance.
Public relations, consulting, and high-end customer service may shift from handling repetitive inquiries to building genuine relationships. A luxury brand concierge might spend less time answering basic product questions and more time curating a personalized experience. A corporate consultant might rely on AI for data analysis but still be the one to interpret complex human dynamics and guide decision-making.
If AI takes care of transactional efficiency, human labor may become more about connection. Jobs that require empathy, persuasion, or storytelling—whether in therapy, hospitality, or even political mediation—could become more valuable, not less.
Inspired by how AI coding tools like Cursor are allowing designers and product managers to build apps without engineers, I wonder if the same shift could happen in creative fields.
Today, there are many concerns about AI-generated content replacing human-made works. But perhaps the pressure brought by AI can be turned into creative momentum. Instead of holding creativity back, AI might become a tool that accelerates it.
Throughout history, it often takes 10 to 20 years for a new genre of music to fully emerge and take root in culture. Jazz, rock, hip-hop, and electronic dance music all took decades to evolve into globally recognized genres. But if creators use AI as a tool rather than a replacement, the pace of creative evolution could grow exponentially. Imagine musicians who no longer need to start from scratch, but can use AI to generate variations of melodies and rhythms, freeing them to focus on the heart of songwriting and inventing entirely new genres — maybe in a matter of a few years, not decades.
For illustrators and comic artists, AI could handle background rendering, coloring, and other repetitive tasks, allowing them to focus fully on crafting emotional expressions, complex narratives, and original worlds. Instead of spending time on technical work, artists could deepen their creative vision and storytelling.
There’s also an economic angle. If AI can take care of tasks that require less creativity, creators may no longer need to hire extra help for things like background drawing or basic editing. This could reduce production costs and allow them to invest more in exploring bold ideas, traveling for inspiration, or experimenting with new concepts.
Literature could also see new possibilities. Generative AI can offer surprising wordings, new structural twists, or help map out story arcs that an author might not think of alone. Instead of sticking to existing formats, writers could combine AI-generated fragments with their own voice to create hybrid forms of storytelling — works that feel new and layered, offering experiences that go beyond current genres.
If used well, AI could become a partner that challenges and inspires creators to push boundaries faster, rather than a competitor that takes over. Of course, whether this happens depends on how creators choose to work with AI — as a tool for expansion, not substitution.
Perhaps in the AI era, we will see more great works of art and literature than ever before, because the barrier to creating has never been lower.
Another observation is that industries with access to data are likely to grow in power. But it may not just be financial or transactional data. It could be behavioral, emotional, and psychological data — the kind AI needs to understand and interact with humans.
This makes me wonder: Are we about to redefine what kind of data is most valuable?
As AI gathers more behavioral and emotional data to better interact with people, I think a whole new set of jobs might emerge. AI today mostly learns from a narrow range of users — often those from Western, educated, industrialized backgrounds. But if AI is going to serve people across cultures, languages, and belief systems, it will need to understand how differently people think, feel, and behave.
Collecting this kind of data isn’t simple. A lot of behaviors, especially those shaped by culture or religion, don’t show up in typical datasets. So maybe there will be people who work directly in communities, bringing these perspectives into AI systems. Some may focus on studying how people express emotions or solve problems in ways that don’t match what AI has seen before. Others might help AI understand when a person’s reaction comes from cultural norms rather than something that needs to be “fixed” - especially in fields like mental health.
If AI becomes part of daily life everywhere, it could also give social scientists and psychologists access to a kind of global behavioral dataset we’ve never had before. That might help us understand how much of human behavior is universal, and how much is shaped by environment and culture. And maybe product designers will need to know these things too — because if AI is going to be useful and respectful in different parts of the world, it has to speak to how people actually live, not just what AI already knows.
So even as AI grows smarter, it feels like there will be a growing need for people who understand the human side of things. Not just to make AI better, but to finally see more clearly who we are.
Maybe AI will not just reshape work but redefine what we consider a meaningful life. If AI can handle survival-level needs—producing goods, automating services, even providing companionship-what will people do with the freedom it creates?
Perhaps we will return to the most human of pursuits. More people may dedicate themselves to philosophy, art, and storytelling, not as luxuries but as essential ways of understanding existence. Maybe entire communities will form around shared intellectual exploration, spiritual growth, or the pursuit of experiences that were once considered impractical in a world obsessed with productivity.
In the past, work has always been at the center of life. People spent decades in rigid nine-to-five jobs because survival depended on it. But if AI automates enough of our economy, it could unlock a world where people have the time and space to pursue things that were once sidelined. More people might write books, study history, experiment with new forms of self-expression, or even start cultural movements.
Maybe we will see a renaissance of thought, where the greatest minds of a generation are not optimizing workflows or maximizing profits, but debating the philosophy of consciousness, pushing the boundaries of human creativity, or reimagining how society functions.
If AI becomes capable of doing almost everything, maybe the real question is not what we will lose, but what we will finally have the space to become.
