Self-worth in the Age of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Recently I was asked the following question 'How might AI displacement impact on the meaning of work and the current nexus between work and self-worth? What can we do to enhance its social impacts and respond to potential negative impacts?'

I thought I would share my answer here as I already had it typed up for a different purpose and see what others are thinking on this topic. So here goes.

The above described scenario offers in my view a great opportunity for humanity to re-learn that a healthy self-worth is not attached to anything external. All human beings are equally worthy as they are by birth without any external approval/status/achievement. Our actions in the world may determine how and where we live (prison or mansion) but not our self-worth. Such unhealthy connection is a cause to a lot of mental health issues, absenteeism, staff-turnover.

Change (AI) doesn’t cause organisational (humanity) dysfunction, it merely exposes it. It is a dysfunction of our society that many of us hold a belief that in order to have ‘worth’ we have to be ‘someone (CIO, mother, worker)’ or do ‘something (build planes, cook lunches etc) ’ or with other words that worth (self-worth) has to be earned. That is a fundamentally flawed belief that makes many companies a lot of money by selling a lot of stuff we don’t need, driving a consumerist culture that is ultimately killing our source of life, the planet.

By taking away the world we knew (and how we draw our self-worth), AI’s up-rise will strip us off all we are not (pretense, ego) in order for us to be what only each individual can be (Michelangelo, how did you create such perfection? Michelangelo answered: I didn’t create David, I only took away what David was not.). In summary the more AI there will be, the more human we will need to become. More real, vulnerable, creative, inclusive, collaborative etc.

So what can we do about it? We can foster conversations within our business’ about where self-worth comes from, learning about healthy self-esteem, building agile mindsets for change as it is not the strongest ones who survive but the most adaptable to change (Darwin). But how do we do that? Well it can be Brown-Bag sessions, Town Hall conversations, inviting speakers to your company conferences that cover this topic.

Soo Balbi from The Coaching Room, my go to place for coaching and training, added some more ideas on tackling the above.

• Question old belief structures about conditional self-worth. Where did they come from. Do they still serve?
• Embrace change as the only constant. Are you looking at a unfolding process from a static viewpoint, taking a snapshot and holding that as if it's true over time? If you see it as an unfolding evolution instead what if anything opens up?
• Take a meta perspective on things (think taking a ride up in a helicopter and looking down on what you see rather than being in it). What else can you see from this viewpoint that wasn't visible when you were part of the picture?
• Look for opportunities that arise out of change. What might be possible?

And what do you think? How can the self-worth conversation be sparked at your workplace or home? Where will you go for your self-worth top-up when one day your job might be done well, yes, by a robot? It is a current reality we are in denial off, not a distant future. Working for an IT company, I often work on engagements where the words cross-skilling and fair-exiting are no strangers as a result of new technology being implemented. The more I am passionate about helping us as humanity to return to ourselves and our intrinsic worth that doesn't need to be fed from the outside. Am I good at it myself? Well I am practicing a new habit, I fail, often, but I truly enjoy the empowering moments when I don't. I still catch myself looking at an expensive handbag in a shopping window sometimes, feeling this little tingle of how I might feel better if only I had it. But then I try to remember that that feeling is fleeting and deceiving. Meditation helps.