Are our values becoming more fit for artificial intelligence society? A longitudinal study of occupational values and occupational susceptibility to technological substitution

Advanced technologies are changing our working life in unpredictable ways. Consequently, a fear of technologically induced mass unemployment has re-emerged. The increased precarity associated with the technological substitution of work could lead to a regression towards materialist values that are more accepting of authoritarianism and xenophobia. Crucially, these values are less associated with the skills demanded in future work, which tends to be depicted as demanding higher levels of innovation, creative and social skills that are associated with post-materialist values. Current research has thus far overlooked the cultural aspects of large-scale technological substitution of work, which this study illuminates. We investigate how the relationship between occupational values and occupational automatability has developed between 2002 and 2018 in Europe. The results demonstrate that occupational values have been rather stable throughout the period. Occupational values are not becoming more or less fit for artificial intelligence society as would be expected if the context becomes increasingly precarious or innovation-driven. The paper demonstrates that a cultural adaptation to this type of society has not yet occurred.