Economic Impacts of Artificial Intelligence and the Risk of Inequality
According to an ING report, while artificial intelligence can boost productivity and lower barriers to entrepreneurship, it may worsen inequality before improving it.
According to a report prepared by ING, artificial intelligence carries the potential to be the great equalizer of the twenty-first century. While this technology increases productivity and reduces barriers to entrepreneurship, it also harbors the risk of deepening inequalities in the short term.
Productivity Growth and Its Limits
While the impact of artificial intelligence on macroeconomic productivity remains limited, improvement rates of up to fifty percent are observed in micro areas such as coding, translation, and data analysis. As the use of agentic artificial intelligence increases, these productivity gains are expected to grow even further.
Expansion of Skills and Opportunities
Artificial intelligence bridges knowledge and expertise gaps, enabling people to do jobs they normally could not access. It allows a weak writer to communicate with professional clarity while making it easier for those without technical knowledge to complete complex tasks.
A New Era in Entrepreneurship
Artificial intelligence lowers barriers in the field of entrepreneurship, where financing has traditionally been a decisive obstacle. By making the establishment of single-person or low-resource companies viable, it offers an important path for socioeconomic mobility.
Reasons for the Worsening of Inequality
Gains in the artificial intelligence race are concentrated in already selected companies and economies. A PwC study shows that seventy-five percent of the gains are captured by only about twenty percent of the companies.
Labor Market and Threats
While employees become more productive, they may lose their bargaining power. Companies shifting toward spending on digital tokens rather than talent can lead to slower wage growth in the labor market and a decrease in entry-level employment.
Geographical Disadvantages
Artificial intelligence may remain insufficient in solving ingrained geographical disadvantages. The fact that approximately one-quarter of the global population still lacks reliable internet access prevents the benefits of the technology from being distributed equally.