Leading Boldly With Discernment

The Inner Work AI Can’t Do

May 27, 2026

Do you have AI fatigue yet?

Because it’s everywhere. Across publications, pitch decks, policy memos and podcasts—as the explanation for layoffs, the justification for executive bonuses, and the scapegoat for just about everything that was already broken before it became massively popular.

But change is inevitable.

The changes reshaping the future of work, productivity, and economic mobility are largely driven by decision-makers who have already determined what human value and labor should be worth.

Too many leaders—in corporations, in policymaking, in the media—are going along to get along. Nodding at the demos. Adding AI to infrastructure, calling it efficiency, while quietly cutting the teams who built and scaled the systems that made those efficiency gains possible in the first place.

What is the quiet part that most aren’t saying out loud about AI?

Writer Jasmine Sun, who covers AI and Silicon Valley culture for her Substack and The Atlantic, spent nearly three months reporting on AI, work and Silicon Valley’s deepest anxieties for an essay she penned in The New York Times in late April. It’s a deep dive in which she interviewed more than 50 researchers, economists and policy experts—including representatives from every major AI lab and several congressional offices.

What’s not being discussed more broadly is the underlying belief that this technology will depress economic mobility and displace millions of workers.

Some go further to believe we are headed toward a “permanent underclass,” a term Merriam-Webster defines as the lowest social stratum, usually made up of disadvantaged minority groups. The concern is that people have a limited window to build wealth before automation advances far enough to fully replace human labor.

Unsettling to say the least.

And what’s especially striking isn’t the concern itself—it’s who is expressing it. As one anonymous researcher who had worked at two frontier AI labs told Sun, “there are some people who care about jobs and inequality because they really care about people,” while others are simply worried that disruption will destabilize the systems that benefit them.

Sun concludes in her piece that a social underclass is a policy choice, and one we should be actively working to stop.

Policy change takes time—and it takes informed constituents and policymakers to drive it. When the conversations shaping AI’s future happen behind closed doors, without broad public education or awareness, participation becomes impossible. How do you weigh in on something you don’t know is affecting your life?

That’s where the digital divide becomes impossible to ignore.

Start Where You Are

No one is an expert on AI. We’re all learners. Some may argue this point—but we’re all learning as we go, and that’s where experience is gained.

The other component of the AI conversation is the widening gap between who can adapt and who cannot, based on access rather than ability.

According to a January 2026 Pew Research Center report on internet access and digital divides, only 54% of adults in households earning less than $30,000 a year subscribe to home broadband compared to 94% of those earning $100,000 or more.

The people and communities most likely to be displaced by AI are also the least likely to have reliable access to the tools and training needed to adapt. Education gaps. Wealth gaps. And now, an access gap is compounding inequality.

Navigating AI’s impact on our economy and local communities starts with the only tangible agency you truly have—yourself. And with that comes a responsibility to choose the tools we use, including AI.

Don’t wait for permission. Learn what AI is, how it’s being used, and what policies are shaping your local community, government and infrastructure. You have to get involved by educating yourself on the issues, gaps and the decision-makers behind this technology to actively change what you can control.

Four places to start:

Jasmine Sun—Essays on AI and Silicon Valley culture through the lens of an anthropology of disruption
Angela Benton—Writing on AI, exploring how we build what’s next: economies, tech, culture and society
Center for Humane Technology—A nonprofit bringing clarity to how the tech ecosystem works and shifting the incentives that drive it
AI Now Institute—Policy research on AI’s social and economic impact

Discerning Leadership Is Required

Discernment is not a feature. It is not a prompt. It is the work of knowing who you are, what you stand for, and refusing to outsource that clarity to AI itself.

AI, like money, is a tool. A resource. Period.

And in the thick of it all, leaders who can think clearly, build deliberately and advocate for the people who have less access to the rooms where these decisions are being made are doing necessary work.

The go-along-to-get-along approach has a cost.

And right now, the people paying aren’t the ones in the room.

Checking In: Are you feeling the pressure of AI at work, at home or both? Drop your thoughts in the comments or send a note to hello.untilfurthernotice@gmail.com.