When Work Becomes Obsolete: Reinventing Ourselves in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

A few days ago, I read a conversation on X (formerly Twitter) among professional translators. They were sharing something that's becoming increasingly common: many of their clients no longer hire them to translate, but —in the best-case scenario— to proofread texts generated by artificial intelligence. And in the worst case, not even that. Accuracy no longer seems to matter. What matters now is that it’s cheap and fast.

Behind those tweets, what emerged was something deeper than just a professional complaint: it was anxiety.

What does someone do after years of studying, building a career, gaining expertise, only to find that their human knowledge is no longer valued by the market? How does one envision the future when the work they trained for is losing ground?

AI doesn’t just translate texts: it writes, codes, designs images, summarizes academic papers, replies to emails, and creates slide decks. And it’s getting better every day.

So the inevitable question arises: what role is left for human beings in this new world of work?

We're not just facing a technological shift, but an emotional and social one too. Because beyond the bugs and biases that still linger in these tools, the deeper issue is how they’re reshaping our relationship with work —and the value placed on human time.

It’s not the same to do as to review. It’s not the same to create as to correct. The meaning of what we do is shifting.

The future of work is not a forecast —it’s a process already underway. And in this process, the only certainty —at least for now— is that we must reinvent ourselves. We need to learn to coexist with these new tools without losing what makes us human: the ability to think critically, to connect with others, to articulate what can’t yet be automated.

Reinvention is not just adaptation. It’s also resistance, redefinition, and the search for new ways to create value from a human place.

Who Is Technology Really Serving?

I invite you to ask yourself a tough but necessary question: Who decides how we use technology?

Philosopher and technologist Ursula Franklin argued that powerful technologies don’t automatically dictate how we live or work —they are the result of social, political, and economic decisions. In other words, we could choose to use them differently.

She warned that many technologies, though presented as liberating, end up shaping systems that prioritize the needs of the technology over the needs of people. The system’s efficiency is put above the human experience. Isn’t that exactly what’s happening when a cheap, mediocre AI translation is preferred over the careful, nuanced work of a professional?

In this light, reinvention shouldn’t be a purely individual burden. It should be a collective responsibility. We need to take part in the conversation about how these tools are integrated into our lives. It’s not just about being more efficient or employable —it’s about redefining the value of human work in this new era.

So here we are —adapting, reinventing, trying not to be left behind. But reinvention shouldn’t be a lonely race, nor a surrender. It’s not about competing with AI, but understanding it, mastering it, using it wisely —making it an ally to create value on our own terms.

Because if work is changing, what we need to discuss is not only what we will do in the future, but also how we want to live that future —and with whom we want to build it.