Navigating the AI Transition in the Labour Market | Dr Fabien Curto Millet at the King's AI Summit

In this keynote at the King’s AI Summit, Dr Fabien Curto Millet, Chief Economist at Google, addresses the economic and labour market implications of AI. He criticizes alarmist prophecies, arguing they are not evidence-based and can be paralyzing. He highlights AI as a potential solution to sluggish productivity and demographic headwinds, citing OECD projections of a 40% drag on GDP per capita growth due to aging. He introduces a framework of jobs lost, gained, and changed, emphasizing that most jobs will be transformed. He references David Autor’s research showing 60% of current US employment is in roles that didn’t exist 80 years ago, suggesting AI will similarly create new opportunities. He contrasts AI’s diffuse impact with the concentrated China shock, which caused 2.4 million job losses in the US, and argues AI will be more like the ‘clerical shock’ that was less disruptive. He proposes public-private partnerships for skilling, noting that over 80% of the 2030 workforce is already employed, and highlights Google’s training of 36 million people in digital skills. He also suggests using AI to improve job training matching, referencing a paper by Julian Jacobs and Jordan Kennedy on the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. He concludes by emphasizing the need for adaptability and resilience in product and capital markets to foster new work, and frames the future as a design problem rather than a forecasting exercise.