Artificial Intelligence is not destiny: Safeguarding human purpose in the age of automation

By Lydik Grynfeltt, Director, HR Bridge Consulting

Artificial Intelligence is no longer a distant prospect. Its presence in business, government and everyday life has become immediate, intense and, for many, unsettling. The pace at which AI advances creates anxiety among individuals, companies and nations. The pressure to adapt can silence meaningful debate. What is missing is not just regulation, financing or technical foresight, but deep collective reflection on where this technology is leading society as a whole.

Geoffrey Hinton, the pioneering mind behind modern AI, recently issued a warning. The systems he helped build may evolve beyond our grasp. Historian Yuval Noah Harari, in his book "Nexus", compares the arrival of sophisticated AI to two moments in human history: the mastery of fire and the creation of language. Both shifted power forever. Now, he argues, we confront a tool that imitates intelligence and may soon rewrite meaning itself. Philosopher Eric Sadin goes even further. In his excellent latest work "Le désert de nous-mêmes", he contends that AI poses an existential risk to our collective identity and purpose. Humanity, for the first time, faces the prospect of being overtaken not by nature or fate, but by its own design.

This is not just a technical dilemma. It is fundamentally existential. As AI is disseminated as a ubiquitous, cost-free tool, the paradox is glaring. The more we automate thinking, the less value we assign to human thought. The effects are already taking shape. Office workers use generative AI to produce content with minimal engagement. Artists and creators, once praised for originality, now find themselves in competition with it. If thought is available everywhere and at no apparent cost, what incentive remains to create or to value the thinkers themselves?

The spread of AI is cultivating a slow disengagement from work that undermines mental and creative investment. Profession after profession lies in the potential path of automation, not just in repetitive jobs but in fields where decision-making and judgment were long considered uniquely human. Law, finance, administration, even corporate governance could soon be executed by autonomous digital agents. Once robotics joins the equation, the same fate could await physical tasks. The issue is no longer only about losing jobs. It is about the steady evaporation of human relevance.

Eric Sadin issues a sharp warning. This moment marks not evolution, but a form of abdication. To be human has always been to think, to reflect, and to find meaning within and beyond our routines. The unchecked spread of free AI threatens to erode this privilege. There is now a fundamental crisis of trust. If nearly any information, image, or idea can be generated by a nonhuman source, how can truth be authenticated? Suspicion will soon replace certainty. Trust itself may be the most endangered commodity in the digital era.

Meanwhile, the global race accelerates. Fear of falling behind propels individuals to use AI, then to depend on it. Companies do the same, quickly becoming reliant on tools they barely understand. Governments promise to fuel innovation, yet often lose sight of its direction or impact. What starts as healthy competition spirals into a trap, a cycle in which everyone participates because standing still feels like surrender. The paradox deepens: while AI unsettles societies, not embracing it seems commercial suicide.

Ursula von der Leyen’s “AI First” initiative for Europe in Italy on 3rd October 2025 reflects growing confusion and illustrates opportunistic rush. Her claim that AI will accelerate medical progress and will save the world could provoke skepticism. To attentive listeners, her remarks seemed like a textbook case of the Trojan horse, promising innovation, while potentially masking serious risks in a perfectly Orwellian scenario.

Governments worldwide are rushing to choose sides in alliances with tech giants, startups, and their own national champions. But the central question is political and ethical, not just economic. Are we discussing AI as a source of profit, or as a force with the power to redefine society and identity? As Geoffrey Hinton has urged, we must expand the debate to civilisation itself. The conversation should be about the meaning of AI for governance, ethics, and national identity. Only through honest reflection can democracies avoid being swept along by technology’s brutal pace.

Society needs a more disciplined conversation about AI than it ever fostered for environmental issues, because technology evolves even more rapidly than climate. The risks are not just hypothetical. Autonomous weapons, chemical agents created with AI, and algorithmic manipulation of opinion are already emerging. Without urgent oversight, these technologies could destabilise security and democracy on a scale previously unimagined.

The business community cannot avoid the subject. A company exists not just to harvest profit, but to provide worth and meaning to people. If companies become empty shells managed only by artificial agents, without human stakeholders or employees, they lose their reason for being. No people, no customers, no enterprise. The future will belong to companies that leverage technology for human benefit and performance, not just to cut costs or accelerate obsolescence. The alternative is to become the next Kodak, left behind by a revolution poorly understood.

At HR Bridge Consulting, we confront these dilemmas in the corporate world. Leaders come to us seeking ways to remain at the forefront of their industries, but with vision and conscience. We encourage companies to integrate AI thoughtfully, ensuring that the talent of today is empowered, not erased, by the machines of tomorrow. Boards and executive committees should drive this reflection, not simply react to market or technological pressures. We advise our clients to avoid waiting for disruption, to use AI to serve their staff, their investors and their customers; never to eliminate the very people who make value creation possible. We help them anticipate, conceptualise and deliver what AI could do for them, from where they are, with a target that includes all their stakeholders, through a sustainable and profit-driven roadmap where people are the priority.

AI is a tool, not a destiny. It can amplify the achievements of a civilisation, or challenge its foundations. The future is not set by lines of code, but by collective human choices. Now is the time to remember why we think at all. What does it mean to be a creator, not just a user? AI may carry us forward, but only if we keep our hands on the wheel.

At HR Bridge Consulting, we are a boutique firm bridging the UK and Europe, with a uniquely British touch. With deep expertise in cross-border HR strategy, transformation, and leadership coaching, we help organisations thrive in complex global markets. Notably, we stand at the forefront of integrating Artificial Intelligence into HR, guiding businesses through the intricacies of EU AI Act compliance, AI risk management, and talent-centric digital transformation. We blend cultural finesse with cutting-edge solutions, empowering clients to navigate regulatory change and unlock the full potential of people and technology.