As artificial intelligence accelerates at a pace few anticipated, questions about the future of work are no longer abstract; they are immediate and deeply personal. From tech to finance, industries are beginning to restructure around automation, with high-profile decisions, such as Jack Dorsey’s move to cut thousands of roles at Block, signalling a shift in how companies value human versus machine labour. When tasks once performed by skilled employees can be executed faster and more efficiently by AI, the line between augmentation and replacement becomes increasingly blurred.

But what happens next? And is AI really as good as we now seem to think it is – that is, can it really replace human labour, or is human verification still key? How should AI be introduced into the workforce, gradually and with safeguards, or as rapidly as innovation allows? Who bears responsibility for workers displaced by automation: companies, governments, or individuals themselves? What does meaningful reskilling actually look like at scale, and can it keep pace with technological change? And perhaps most fundamentally, if AI can perform a growing share of human work, how do we redefine the purpose, value, and security of employment in the years ahead?

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Dr Helena Ivanov

Associate Researcher at the Henry Jackson Society

Jonathan Boakes

Managing Director at Infinum

Dr Nandita Balakrishnan

Director for Intelligence at SCSP

Lord Tim Clement-Jones

House of Lords