Artificial Intelligence & the Future of Work

At a Glance

• 3-year global initiative with published flagship outputs
• 5 expert-led Task Forces spanning macroeconomics, education, health, ethics, and EMDEs
• Regional diagnostics across multiple regions and sectors
• Actionable recommendations for policymakers, universities, employers, and partners

Overview/Summary

Artificial intelligence is reshaping jobs, productivity, and skills systems faster than institutions can adapt. CSD’s AI and the Future of Work initiative convenes global partners across government, industry, and academia to translate AI disruption into measurable workforce readiness, future-proof skills systems, and policy that supports inclusive growth.

Our focus is implementation - turning evidence and convening into practical tools, pilot pathways, and scalable solutions across regions.

Key priorities include:

• Workforce readiness and future skills systems
• Responsible and measurable AI adoption
• Global convening and applied outputs (task forces, reports, indices, and briefings)

Project Leadership

Prof. Yanis Ben Amor
Director and Initiative Lead, AI and the Future of Work
Center for Sustainable Development, Columbia University

Prof. Ben Amor provides strategic leadership for the initiative, convening global partners across government, industry, academia, and civil society to advance human-centered AI adoption, future skills readiness, and evidence-based policy.

He oversees the initiative’s Task Forces, research agenda, and applied outputs, ensuring that the work remains focused on implementation pathways and measurable impact across regions.

Strategic Imperative

AI is already embedded in daily workflows - from analytics and operations to service delivery. The strategic question is whether institutions can redesign roles, incentives, governance, and skills fast enough to capture productivity gains while protecting equity and trust.

The CSD × FII Institute Collaboration

The AI & the Future of Work initiative is led by Columbia University’s Center for Sustainable Development (CSD) in partnership with the Future Investment Initiative Institute (FII Institute).

Together, we combine:

• Columbia’s interdisciplinary research and policy leadership
• FII Institute’s international convening power and cross-sector ecosystem
• A shared commitment to human-centered AI that strengthens inclusion and opportunity

This partnership bridges academic rigor and real-world decision-making - connecting research, governance, workforce strategy, and implementation.

What We Deliver

We translate foresight into practical outputs that help governments, universities, and institutions prepare for AI-driven transformation. Core deliverables include:

• Flagship reports and applied research outputs
• Regional diagnostics and readiness assessments
• Policy and governance recommendations for responsible adoption
• Workforce strategy insights on skills disruption and inequality
• Curriculum modernization pathways for universities and training systems
• Briefings and convenings that connect decision-makers to actionable evidence

Objectives of the Initiative

AI is rapidly transforming the nature of work across sectors, raising urgent questions about productivity, labor markets, skills, governance, and inequality. The AI and the Future of Work initiative was established through a collaboration between Columbia University and the Future Investment Initiative (FII) Institute to convene global stakeholders and generate actionable insights on how societies can adapt.

The initiative aims to:

• Identify AI-driven workforce impacts across professions, industries, and economies
• Generate practical policy and institutional recommendations to maximize opportunity while reducing risk
• Support universities and training systems in designing curricula aligned with emerging labor market needs
• Promote inclusive strategies that prevent widening gaps between high-income countries and low- and middle-income countries (LMICs)

Our core objective is to ensure that the workforce of today is not rendered obsolete by the pace of technological change—and that AI-driven transformation strengthens inclusion rather than deepens inequality.

Task Forces

The initiative is structured around expert-led Task Forces that examine the future of work through specific lenses and produce targeted outputs, including working papers, strategic briefs, and recommendations.

Current Task Forces include:

Macroeconomics, Poverty, and Inequality

Examines the macroeconomic implications of AI adoption, including productivity, labor displacement, wage polarization, and the role of public policy in reducing inequality.

AI in Healthcare

Explores how AI is transforming healthcare delivery, clinical decision-making, public health systems, and health workforce needs—particularly in emerging and developing economies.

AI in Education

Assesses how AI tools can reshape education systems, teacher support, and learning outcomes, while identifying critical ethical and governance boundaries for the use of AI in learning environments.

AI in Ethics

Analyzes the ethical, societal, and governance challenges raised by AI adoption—including fairness, accountability, transparency, and human-centered safeguards to ensure AI advances serve people and society.

Emerging and Developing Economies (EMDEs)

A cross-cutting Task Force convening members from EMDE contexts to ensure that LMIC priorities are integrated into the initiative’s agenda and outputs, and that solutions reflect real institutional constraints and opportunities.

Preventing a New Digital Divide

A defining pillar of the initiative is ensuring that AI does not deepen inequality between high-income countries and low- and middle-income countries. We work with partners to strengthen:

• Institutional readiness and implementation capacity
• Workforce development systems and future skills pathways
• Data governance and enabling infrastructure
• Ethical and regulatory frameworks grounded in local realities

Our goal is that EMDEs are co-creators of AI-enabled workforce strategies—not passive recipients.

Latest Reports

Our Task Forces publish applied research and policy outputs designed for governments, institutions, and partners.

Non-Negotiable Skills in the Future of Education with AI. (June 2026)

AI-Led Growth and Jobs in the Emerging and Developing Economies. (March 2026)

AI and Ethics of Smart Education. (March 2026)

Early U.S Evidence of AI Impacts on Jobs in the College Educated Workforce (January 2026)

Reducing Inequalities in Education Through Artificial Intelligence (November 2025)

AI & Healthcare in the MENA Region: Challenges and Opportunities (October 2025)

→ View all reports

Research in Conversation

The initiative’s publications are complemented by interviews, panel discussions, and expert conversations that translate research findings into practical insights for policymakers, educators, healthcare leaders, industry, and the broader public.

AI & Healthcare in the MENA Region
Interview | October 2025
Professor Yanis Ben Amor discusses AI readiness in healthcare across Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Tunisia, highlighting challenges related to governance, workforce readiness, data fragmentation, evaluation, and top-down policymaking.
Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8t636x2IjHQ 

Reducing Inequalities in Education Through Artificial Intelligence
Interview | December 2025
Professor Yanis Ben Amor discusses how AI can help reduce educational inequalities across Brazil, Kenya, Greece, and India, while addressing infrastructure gaps, digital literacy, language barriers, data privacy, and the need for constant learning.
Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmCjeK0cauo 

The Ethics of Smart Education
Interview | March 2026
Professors Yanis Ben Amor and Cristina Godoy examine ethical and regulatory challenges in AI-enabled education, including student data protection, human oversight, and the need to ensure technology supports the core values of learning.
Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnEi1PwUX5w 

Delphi Economic Forum XI: AI & the Future of Education
Panel | April 2026
Professors Yanis Ben Amor, John Oredo, Filipe Medon, and Nikos Panagiotou discuss how AI is reshaping education systems, reducing inequalities, and requiring new approaches to governance, digital inclusion, and workforce readiness.
Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06YNOXy2_1U 

Why This Matters: AI, Trust, and the Global Divide

AI is now one of the fastest-growing drivers of transformation across economies. Yet global readiness is uneven—and the risks of widening inequality are real.

Recent evidence highlights the urgency:

• The FII PRIORITY Compass indicates that 40% of the world’s population perceives generative AI as a threat, including concerns about job displacement.
• The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has estimated that 40% of jobs in emerging markets could face negative impacts from AI, driven in part by structural digital divides and limited institutional capacity.

Without deliberate investment in skills, governance, and institutional readiness, AI may widen the gap between the Global North and the Global South.

To address this challenge, the initiative leverages Columbia’s global ecosystem—including the Columbia Global Centers network—to engage universities and partners in LMICs and support locally grounded pathways for workforce resilience, education reform, and inclusive AI adoption.

Launch and Momentum

Launched in March 2024 at Columbia University in New York, the initiative convenes a global coalition across academia, government, industry, and civil society—supporting applied task force work and publishable outputs.

What’s Next

In Year 3 (2026), the initiative will expand regional diagnostics, deepen applied engagement with partners, and advance workforce and curriculum modernization pathways that can scale.

Get involved

This is a working initiative. We collaborate with partners through task forces, briefings, and applied outputs.

Ways to engage

• Partner with us — explore collaboration opportunities, co-develop pilots, and support applied outputs
• Join a Task Force — contribute expertise across our workstreams (health, education, ethics, macroeconomics, EMDEs)
• Request a briefing — schedule a short conversation on the initiative, deliverables, and engagement options

Contact
Email: [email protected]