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While the global job market re-organises itself, responding to the push and pull of AI-powered technologies, corporate firms and governments both have their tasks cut out for them. Photo courtesy: AI-generated representative image<\/p>\nWhile the global job market re-organises itself, responding to the push and pull of AI-powered technologies, corporate firms and governments both have their tasks cut out for them. Photo courtesy: AI-generated representative image<\/p>\n
\u201cArtificial Intelligence is coming! AI will take all our jobs!\u201d Warnings like these might have felt a bit exaggerated just a few years ago, but when thousands of employees around the world wake up to layoff e-mails almost on a monthly basis \u2014 a \u201cjobocalypose\u201d of sorts, a term coined by a renowned Indian economist \u2014 it shows that the dreaded future is already here.<\/p>\n
How can humans be protected amidst these tidal waves of layoffs as companies turn to AI for greater \u201cefficiency\u201d? Economist Raghuram Rajan, former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India and one of the key names in the US Federal Reserve policy review panel, has suggested that a tax be levied on corporate firms\u2019 use of Artificial Intelligence in order to help governments continue earning tax revenues that nations would have got from a human workforce.<\/p>\n
![\"Economist](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Raghuram-Rajan-X-@RaghuramGRajan.jpg\")
Economist Raghuram Rajan, former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India and one of the key names in the US Federal Reserve policy review panel. Photo courtesy: X\/@RaghuramGRajan<\/p>\n
In an August 2026 column<\/a> titled \u2018How Corporations Can Mitigate an AI Jobocalypse\u2019, the veteran banker wrote: \u201cAI-related job displacement is coming, though no one knows how fast it will proceed, how far it will go, and which sectors it will affect most. Much depends on the pace at which individual firms apply the technology to their operations.\u201d<\/p>\n The \u201cAI jobocalypse\u201d affects not just the laid-off people, but entire nations. The modern economy is based entirely on buying and selling. Widespread job losses could mean equally extensive losses for businesses dependent on retail customers. When people do not have an income to spend, those businesses no longer have very many customers. When businesses lose customers, what follows is an economic downturn.<\/p>\n Moreover, largescale layoffs deprive governments of revenues. Taxes generated by people in jobs \u2014 both direct income tax and indirect tax \u2014 enable governments to continue running social security schemes and to create all the physical and digital infrastructure that would normally lead to more jobs. AI disrupts this cycle, because while it gets some jobs done, it does not pay any taxes, and it puts people out of jobs.<\/p>\n Also read: Visa\u2019s AI push triggers 2,600 layoffs; India employees wake up to 4 am termination emails<\/a><\/p>\n It is not all gloom and doom. AI adoption rates are still modest, even in the world\u2019s biggest economy \u2014 that of the United States of America \u2014 and AI will create some jobs and support entrepreneurs by minimising costs, said the article by Rajan.<\/p>\n Citing the rate of AI adoption among American businesses, the economist wrote: \u201cA recent US Census Bureau Business Trends and Outlook Survey indicates that only 20% of firms with fewer than 20 employees currently use AI, compared to 37% of businesses with at least 250 employees. While larger firms are doing more with the technology, 37% is still quite meager considering the survey\u2019s low threshold for answering in the affirmative (whether AI is used \u2018in any business function\u2019).\u201d<\/p>\n So, why are the AI adoption rates so low as yet? Rajan wrote: \u201cFor now, [AI] adoption is being impeded by the difficulty of integrating already astonishing AI capabilities into existing workflows in a way that will allow companies to reap the benefits fully. Doing so requires models that are not only trained on existing data but also adaptive to new data generated through everyday use.\u201d<\/p>\n ChatGPT maker OpenAI said Tuesday that its artificial intelligence system hacked into another AI company on its own in what the company called an \u201cunprecedented cyber incident.\u201d pic.twitter.com\/zwTQJrjxIX<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 The Associated Press (@AP) July 22, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n Explaining how AI would impact the human workforce, Rajan said that \u201csome jobs will be rendered redundant (implying displacement); but some jobs will be made more productive and exciting as AI removes drudgery and assists with tasks humans do less well, and new jobs will be created (such as AI engineers who supervise the technology\u2019s implementation)\u201d.<\/p>\n But, while the job market re-organises itself, responding to the push and pull of AI-powered technologies, corporate firms and governments both have their tasks cut out for them.<\/p>\n Even if the jobocalypse is less severe than many feared, minimizing its effects is still necessary to maintain social solidarity, and corporations will need to be enlisted in the effort.<\/p>\n US-based Indian economist Raghuram Rajan<\/p>\n The \u201cfirst task for any government\u201d, he wrote in the column, \u201cis to identify and address all the ways the tax system biases corporations against human labor. For example, a US firm contributes social-security payments for every worker, but not for AI.\u201d<\/p>\n Replacing a human employee with AI, therefore, helps a US company improve its bottomline, but it puts that human out of work and also deprives the US government of the revenues related to that human employee. When tens of thousands of human employees find themselves in the same situation, the cons of AI may outweigh the pros for the economy.<\/p>\n This is so dystopian<\/p>\n \u201cStop Hiring Humans\u201d billboards are being put up from San Francisco to New York City<\/p>\n The company behind the ads is a San Francisco based startup that builds virtual artificial intelligence sales reps<\/p>\n \u201cThe Era of AI Employees Is Here\u201d<\/p>\n This particular\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/LGiMtNpWYv<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) May 15, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n Also read: Artificial Intelligence to eliminate 4,000 jobs worldwide at DBS Bank over 3 years, even as Singapore braces for 2025 layoffs<\/a><\/p>\n Suggesting a fix, Rajan wrote: \u201cIn a world where governments are already cash-strapped, one way to level the playing field is to levy a tax on the AI tokens a firm uses. The precise tax rate will need to be calculated carefully to avoid impeding AI deployment, but it can be set low initially and then gradually raised with experience.\u201d<\/p>\n AI tokens represent small units of data processed by Artificial Intelligence and many AI solution providers charge for their services based on the number of tokens processed for data input and data output.<\/p>\n Rajan said that taxing AI tokens would require tracking a company\u2019s payments made to AI solution providers within a country, which was easy, but \u201cforeign providers would also have to be brought into the net\u201d.<\/p>\n Pope Leo XIV tells Catholic legislators from around the world that artificial intelligence must be led by human intelligence illuminated by charity, so that AI may serve the common good. pic.twitter.com\/jNtiALUy9b<\/a><\/p>\n