AI anxiety also has temperature differences

AI speeds up work — and worry

AI has supercharged productivity in ways that feel almost supernatural. Deadlines that theoretically sat weeks away are being finished in days. But faster output has not translated into leisure; instead it has produced more follow‑on work, new subprojects and, crucially, more anxiety. Why? Because increased personal efficiency often just raises expectations — for individuals and for their bosses. Who benefits when a task that once took a week is done in a day: the worker, or the owner of the AI that did it?

Economic and cultural fault lines

There are structural reasons this round of automation feels different. Classical economic logic — often associated with Nicholas Kaldor — held that more and better capital raises workers’ productivity and wages. AI behaves differently: it is simultaneously a capital good and a form of labor, so gains can flow disproportionately to capital owners rather than to displaced workers. Scholars have pointed out the distinction between “AI that can beat humans” and “AI that can replace humans,” and many workers feel the latter threat keenly. Cultural forces add fuel: from Max Weber’s “iron cage” to Keynes’s speculation about abundant leisure, history shows people often respond to greater freedom with more work, not less.

A patchwork of anxiety across countries and sectors

This anxiety is uneven. It has been reported that Deloitte’s 2025 survey found roughly two‑thirds of Gen Z and millennials worry GenAI could wipe out jobs — and paradoxically, the heaviest users of GenAI report the highest anxiety. In India, users of major online platforms reportedly ask, “Is AI going to take my job?” The Philippines’ large BPO sector — which contributes roughly 7.4% of GDP — is viewed as particularly exposed. South Korea’s younger generations confront a mix of economic and social pessimism that compounds technological fears. At the same time, Chinese tech giants such as Baidu (百度) and Alibaba (阿里巴巴) are racing to deploy generative AI; export controls, chip sanctions and broader US‑China tech competition will shape who gets access to the most powerful systems and thus who captures the gains.

What comes next?

If history is any guide, saved time will be redeployed rather than returned as leisure. Many young people and workers are already pivoting — into trades, resilience skills and adaptability — because planning feels precarious when whole career paths can be upended by a model update. So the central question remains: can policy, corporate decisions and social norms steer the coming wave toward broadly shared prosperity, or will AI simply amplify existing inequalities? For now, anxiety is the most visible symptom — and it is warming up at very different temperatures around the world.