Muskian future of work: An OTT series without a plot

ELON MUSK HAS done it again. In between launching rockets, wiring brains to computers, and arguing with strangers on X at 3 am, the world’s most prolific futurist-in-chief has made yet another promise to civilisation: artificial intelligence (AI) will make work optional.

- SHYAMAL MAJUMDAR

Let that sink in. In the brave new world, humans won’t work for survival. We’ll work only if we want to. This is excellent news for millions who hate their jobs, but deeply unsettling for managers whose sole purpose in life is “touch base’, “quick calls’, “circling back’, and “synergy”. AI may not just kill jobs—it may kill corporate vocabulary.

AI, Musk assures us, will outperform humans at everything and tomorrow’s “offices” will be populated by machines that don’t demand coffee breaks or emotional validation. Humans, relieved of labour, will finally be free to pursue “meaning”.

The problem, however, is that no one is prepared for a world where nobody has to pretend they are busy. Entire industries are built on the performance of productivity. PowerPoint presentations, strategy offsites, brainstorming sessions that produce no brains and very little storm—all now face extinction.