Featuring scholarly and practitioner insights from HR and people leaders, industry experts, and researchers.

In this HCI Webinar, I talk with Justin Jones-Fosu about his book, I Respectfully Disagree: How to Have Difficult Conversations in a Divided World. Justin Jones-Fosu is the embodiment of energy, both at home as a dedicated father to two spirited children and atop the world's highest peaks, having recently conquered one of the famed 7 Summits. But Justin's passion for elevation doesn't end with trekking, it's mirrored in his professional ascent as a captivating business speaker, innovative social entrepreneur, and insightful workplace researcher. At the helm of Work. Meaningful., Justin is the driving force and CEO behind a movement that empowers organizations across the globe, delivering over 50 keynote addresses a year on the pivotal topics of meaningful work and inclusion. His mission is to ignite a transformation in corporate culture, guiding organizations and individuals to ascend to their peak potential through mastery of mindset, purpose, and performance. Justin is not only a pathfinder in the wilderness but also in the literary world, authoring essential reads such as "Your WHY Matters NOW," "The Inclusive Mindset," and his latest thought-provoker, “I Respectfully Disagree: How to have Difficult Conversations in a Divided World.” His work is a compass for those seeking direction on creating connections in an often-fragmented society. With a flair for infusing humor into his well-researched content, Justin doesn't just give a speech; he crafts an experience, leaving his audience not just informed but transformed. His approach is not merely to inform but to inspire, not just to direct but to make a difference.

This video presents a timely and urgent discussion about the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) and its profound impact on the workforce and economy. AI is swiftly displacing jobs across various sectors, from tech and customer service to creative industries such as graphic design and video editing. This transformation is driven primarily by companies’ pursuit of cost reduction and increased productivity. The adoption of AI and automation offers significant short-term financial benefits, but it also triggers a paradox where mass unemployment leads to diminished consumer spending, ultimately shrinking the overall economic pie. The video highlights the systemic externality problem: companies reap the rewards of automation while society bears the costs of job losses and reduced economic demand. Highlights 🤖 AI is rapidly replacing jobs across industries, from tech to creative roles. 💼 Companies automate to cut costs and boost productivity, but this harms the economy long-term. 📉 Mass unemployment reduces consumer spending, shrinking the overall economic market. ⚖️ The automation race is driven by competitive pressure and misaligned incentives. 🏛️ Partial solutions like retraining or UBI don’t address the core economic problem. 💰 A Pigouvian automation tax could force companies to internalize social costs. 🔄 Tax revenues could fund retraining and social safety nets, creating sustainable economic balance. Key Insights 🤖 The Accelerated Pace of AI Adoption Creates Immediate Economic Disruptions: The video underscores that AI is not a distant threat but an ongoing reality, with companies like Block Inc. and Salesforce rapidly replacing large portions of their workforce. This rapid displacement challenges traditional labor markets and societal structures, illustrating that AI’s impact is broad and indiscriminate, affecting both high-skill and entry-level jobs. 💸 Short-Term Profit Motives Drive Automation Despite Long-Term Economic Risks: CEOs prioritize immediate cost savings and productivity gains, often overlooking the broader consequences. This reflects a fundamental tension in capitalist economies: individual firms optimize for private gain, even when collective outcomes may be detrimental. The economic principle here is that the private benefit of automation exceeds the private cost, while social costs are externalized. 🔄 Externalities of Automation Lead to a Shrinking Economic Pie: When workers lose jobs and income due to automation, their reduced spending power results in lower demand for goods and services, creating a negative feedback loop. This phenomenon is a textbook example of a negative externality where the true societal cost of an action is not reflected in the decision-making of individual actors. ⚔️ Competitive Pressures Create a 'Race to the Bottom' Dynamic: Even when aware of the negative consequences, companies feel compelled to automate rapidly to avoid losing market share. This creates a prisoner's dilemma scenario, where collective restraint would benefit society, but individual incentives push firms to continue automating aggressively. 🧩 Existing Proposed Solutions Are Insufficient Without Changing Incentives: Retraining and universal basic income are helpful but do not address the root cause—the misalignment of private incentives and social costs. Without changing the underlying economic incentives, automation will continue unchecked, exacerbating inequality and economic instability. 💡 Pigouvian Taxation as a Mechanism to Internalize Social Costs: By taxing the act of replacing human labor with AI, companies would be compelled to consider the full economic impact of automation. This would shift the cost-benefit analysis, potentially slowing automation to a manageable pace and fostering more responsible corporate behavior. 🌍 Using Tax Revenue to Fund Worker Support Creates a Sustainable Transition: The suggested tax revenue could finance retraining, upskilling, and social safety nets, mitigating unemployment’s social harms. This approach echoes successful labor market models like Denmark’s Flexi-curity, which balances flexibility with security, promoting a more resilient and adaptable workforce in the face of technological change. Don't forget to like and share this video! #AI #Automation #EconomicPolicy #JobDisplacement #FutureOfWork OUTLINE: 00:00:00 - Our New AI Overlords Arrive 00:01:48 - A Race to the Bottom for Everyone 00:03:33 - Or, "I Get the Savings, You Get the Misery" 00:04:15 - Why All Our Favorite "Solutions" Are Just Band-Aids on a Bullet Wound 00:04:59 - Taxing the Robots

Abstract: Organizations deploying artificial intelligence increasingly cite labor cost reduction as a primary driver, with over 100,000 technology workers displaced in 2025 alone. Yet recent theoretical work reveals a structural paradox: even when every firm recognizes that mass automation erodes the consumer demand they collectively depend on, competitive incentives trap them in an acceleration dynamic that harms both workers and shareholders. This article synthesizes emerging research on demand externalities in AI-driven labor displacement with organizational evidence to demonstrate that the automation problem is not merely distributional but constitutes a market failure requiring targeted intervention. Analysis of six policy instruments—upskilling, universal basic income, capital taxation, worker equity participation, voluntary agreements, and automation taxes—reveals that only the last operates on the correct margin to align private incentives with collective welfare. The findings suggest organizations and policymakers must address not only displacement's aftermath but the competitive structures that accelerate it beyond socially optimal levels.

In this podcast episode, Dr. Jonathan H. Westover talks with Justin Jones-Fosu about his book, I Respectfully Disagree: How to Have Difficult Conversations in a Divided World. Justin Jones-Fosu is the embodiment of energy, both at home as a dedicated father to two spirited children and atop the world's highest peaks, having recently conquered one of the famed 7 Summits. But Justin's passion for elevation doesn't end with trekking, it's mirrored in his professional ascent as a captivating business speaker, innovative social entrepreneur, and insightful workplace researcher. At the helm of Work. Meaningful., Justin is the driving force and CEO behind a movement that empowers organizations across the globe, delivering over 50 keynote addresses a year on the pivotal topics of meaningful work and inclusion. His mission is to ignite a transformation in corporate culture, guiding organizations and individuals to ascend to their peak potential through mastery of mindset, purpose, and performance. Justin is not only a pathfinder in the wilderness but also in the literary world, authoring essential reads such as "Your WHY Matters NOW," "The Inclusive Mindset," and his latest thought-provoker, “I Respectfully Disagree: How to have Difficult Conversations in a Divided World.” His work is a compass for those seeking direction on creating connections in an often-fragmented society. With a flair for infusing humor into his well-researched content, Justin doesn't just give a speech; he crafts an experience, leaving his audience not just informed but transformed. His approach is not merely to inform but to inspire, not just to direct but to make a difference. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this HCI Webinar, I talk with Carol Zizzo about the new executive skill set required for 2026 and beyond. Carol is the CEO of Henley Leadership Group and has been in the field of training and development for since 1991. As an executive coach and trainer, she has a bold, straightforward and passionate approach that produces high-performance results. She is dedicated to professional leadership development that emphasizes living a fulfilled life as a means to create extraordinary fiscal results. Carol is adept at identifying system dynamics and their implications on the task at hand. With a whole systems approach to her work, she supports the leader’s development and partners with him/her to develop the organization. She holds a B.A. in Business and Organization Development and received her executive coaching certification from the Coach Training Institute. By bringing levity, fun and partnership, clients experience ease and relief when tackling big challenges with Carol.

This research examines the AI automation paradox, where businesses engage in an aggressive "arms race" to replace employees with technology despite the collective damage this causes to the economy. Although individual firms save on labor costs, their actions simultaneously erode the consumer base necessary to sustain long-term revenue, creating a market failure where private gains lead to social and economic waste. The research evaluates various solutions, noting that popular ideas like Universal Basic Income or worker equity may help individuals but do not stop the underlying competitive drive to automate excessively. Instead, the research highlights a Pigouvian automation tax as the most effective tool to align corporate incentives with public welfare by charging firms for the external demand loss they generate. Ultimately, the research argues that structural policy interventions and robust retraining programs are essential to prevent the technological displacement of workers from triggering a self-destructive economic cliff. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this podcast episode, Dr. Jonathan H. Westover talks with Carol Zizzo about the new executive skill set required for 2026 and beyond. Carol is the CEO of Henley Leadership Group and has been in the field of training and development for since 1991. As an executive coach and trainer, she has a bold, straightforward and passionate approach that produces high-performance results. She is dedicated to professional leadership development that emphasizes living a fulfilled life as a means to create extraordinary fiscal results. Carol is adept at identifying system dynamics and their implications on the task at hand. With a whole systems approach to her work, she supports the leader’s development and partners with him/her to develop the organization. She holds a B.A. in Business and Organization Development and received her executive coaching certification from the Coach Training Institute. By bringing levity, fun and partnership, clients experience ease and relief when tackling big challenges with Carol. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This research examines the AI automation paradox, where businesses engage in an aggressive "arms race" to replace employees with technology despite the collective damage this causes to the economy. Although individual firms save on labor costs, their actions simultaneously erode the consumer base necessary to sustain long-term revenue, creating a market failure where private gains lead to social and economic waste. The research evaluates various solutions, noting that popular ideas like Universal Basic Income or worker equity may help individuals but do not stop the underlying competitive drive to automate excessively. Instead, the research highlights a Pigouvian automation tax as the most effective tool to align corporate incentives with public welfare by charging firms for the external demand loss they generate. Ultimately, the research argues that structural policy interventions and robust retraining programs are essential to prevent the technological displacement of workers from triggering a self-destructive economic cliff. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.