Rarely has a technology simultaneously sparked so much enthusiasm and so much anxiety at the same time. On the one hand, promise of productivity gains unseen since the 1970s; on the other, the spectre of dwindling job prospects for an entire generation of young graduates. But these two realities are not contradictory. Together, they contribute to a fundamental contemporary equation: AI is an amplifier—of value for those who prepare for it, of inequality for those left behind. To fully grasp this challenge, we must follow the thread that runs from productivity to employment, from employment to business organisation, and then from organisation to a collective ambition for training that matches the scale of the challenge – the journey this article sets out to take.
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