AI will add jobs in the short run
| AUTHOR | Sridhar Krishna |
| DATE | August 9, 2026 |
| CATEGORIES | AI Jobs |
The Economist in its issue dated August 8, 2026 has reported a huge increase in citizens in the UK using AI to demand their dues, submit appeals and file objections and complaints to the state. There is even a term for this. It is called Agentic Flooding. This to me is an example of how AI could increase the amount of work and not always decrease it.
Whenever people talk about artificial intelligence, they often think of it as a technology that can increase productivity very significantly, and therefore reduce the number of people who are required to do a particular job. Unlike earlier technologies, AI seems to be capable of doing tasks which require creativity, lots of knowledge and sometimes great skill. This threatens the high wage earners of today for the first time. Since it affects people with a voice, this technology is getting so much more attention than many others before it.
Let us look at the reasons why people don’t do many things they want to do. They don’t do it because it is hard to do, they don’t do it because it’s expensive and they can’t afford it. They don’t do it because it’s not easily accessible. They don’t do it because sometimes they’ve never thought of it or did not know it was possible to do. If AI increases productivity the way we expect it to do, it will reduce the cost of doing something, and therefore increase the demand for it. If televisions and VR headsets become cheaper, more televisions and VR headsets will get sold. If beds become cheaper, fewer people in India and parts of Africa will sleep on the floor.. If books become cheaper to produce, more books get sold. If it becomes easier to use AI to identify loopholes in contracts and the law, people will litigate more. As things become cheaper and easier to do, the demand for many goods and services will increase. It is true that demand cannot go on rising indefinitely for everything. How much more food will people consume and how much furniture can people fit into their homes?
However when you compare consumption data across the world, you notice that while average consumption is $13,000 per capita on PPP basis, the US consumer on an average consumes $52,000 and somebody in the Republic of Congo consumes just $689. This clearly demonstrates scope for increasing consumption for people across the board.
Access to justice has been very unequal across the world and especially in countries like India, due to the high cost and effort involved in litigation. AI can increase access to many who were thus far excluded from knowing one’s rights and being able to demand them. This will put even more pressure on our judicial system and the state will need to increase capacity to dispense justice.
AI adoption also does not happen all at once. Some tasks are more amenable to AI adoption than others. Since AI adoption is easier to petition the state than it takes the state to resolve it, it will increase the demand for state capacity. Therefore, I believe there will be an actual increase in the number of jobs in the short run. The long run is a different story for another day.