AI and social inequalities: who will gain, who will lose, and why

Artificial intelligence will not distribute benefits equally.

For some employees, it will provide tools that accelerate promotion and increase productivity.

Others will face wage pressure, task automation, and the loss of entry paths into the middle class.

The most important question is therefore not whether AI will increase productivity, but who will capture its value.

According to an analysis by the International Monetary Fund, about 40% of global employment is exposed to the influence of AI.

In developed economies, this share grows to about 60%, because more work there relies on cognitive tasks: analysis, writing, document handling, reporting, programming, and communication.

These are precisely the tasks that generative AI automates or supports fastest.

In practice, this means that AI will be simultaneously a technology that levels and deepens inequalities.