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THE BOTTOM LINE

If you thought the global financial crisis was bad...

When the crash comes, stabilising markets will be easy compared with reordering society for AI

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Published Mon, Jun 29, 2026 · 05:07 PM
    • AI will have such a profound impact on businesses’ cost and pricing structures that failure to adopt rapidly will prove existential for a large swathe of the economy.
    • AI will have such a profound impact on businesses’ cost and pricing structures that failure to adopt rapidly will prove existential for a large swathe of the economy. PHOTO: YEN MENG JIIN, BT

    WITHIN a few years, artificial intelligence will displace a significant portion of the world’s highly paid knowledge workers.

    Aggregate demand will suffer, but flows into retirement investment accounts will turn net negative: workers will not just stop paying in, they will need to withdraw funds.

    These outflows will come largely from passive investment funds, particularly S&P 500 index trackers. Although such redemptions sell every constituent in proportion to its index weight, the price impact will not be evenly distributed.

    The Bottom LineArtificial IntelligenceJobs and skillseconomyFinancial markets

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