Meaningful work in peril? Preserving self-efficacy in the age of artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming our socioeconomic landscape. Unprecedented advances in knowledge acquisition, human augmentation, and wealth creation are accompanied by equally unprecedented challenges from AI-driven job automation and displacement. This commentary explores AI’s impact on the experience of meaningful work as a function of self-efficacy—an individual’s belief in their capability to execute behaviors necessary to achieve specific goals. Specifically, we posit that vocational self-efficacy, cultivated through experiences of meaningful work, constitutes an essential component of individual and collective wellbeing and flourishing. We critically examine how evolving AI-labor relations may impact work significance, highlighting AI’s dual role as both an enabler and a threat to vocational self-efficacy. We conclude by outlining actionable recommendations for civil society, policymakers, and the private sector aimed at cultivating meaning and self-efficacy—both as an ethical imperative and a means to foster societal cohesion in the age of AI.