As AI automates commodity production, making goods cheap and abundant, economic focus and employment will shift to a 'relational sector.' In this sector, the value of a service is inseparable from the human provider—think artisans, therapists, and experience designers, whose human touch becomes the premium feature.
Despite technology being available, Starbucks rolled back in-store automation after finding it was a mistake. Management discovered that human touches like handwritten notes and more baristas drove higher customer satisfaction and longer stays, demonstrating a clear market preference for human experience over mechanized efficiency.
The primary driver of economic change isn't that automated goods become cheaper (a price effect). Rather, the dominant force is the 'income effect.' As AI increases real incomes, people fundamentally change their spending habits to desire more high-elasticity, human-intensive services like education, entertainment, and in-person dining.
Drawing on René Girard's theory of 'memetic desire,' human want is driven by scarcity and social status. Experiments show AI-generated goods are perceived as inherently reproducible and non-unique, even when artificially limited. This lack of 'aura' or provenance caps their value, making them less desirable than human-made equivalents.
Typically seen as a negative, Baumol's cost disease—where non-automatable sectors become relatively more expensive—becomes a feature in a post-AI world. The rising cost of human services stops being a budget problem and instead becomes a labor market solution, creating a virtuous cycle where employment grows precisely in sectors that resist automation.
The most durable future jobs are not about managing AI systems, which are merely transitional roles in the automated sector. Instead, stable careers will be in the 'relational sector,' where the human element is the core product itself. This includes roles like therapists, teachers, craft brewers, and community curators.