The future of Human Workforce, Robotization and Automatization

On 29 September 2026 Elisabetta Costa joined the plenary session on 'Post-societies in the EU and beyond' as a panel member, discussing what happens if technology allows us to work less—or eventually makes some forms of human labour unnecessary. This discussion was part of the online second International Interdisciplinary Conference on 'The future of Human Workforce, Robotization and Automatization'.

This conversation explored the futures of work beyond technological determinism: who decides how AI is used, who benefits from automation, and what happens to income, inequality, agency and meaning if paid work becomes less central to our lives. What happens with remote and hybrid work? From universal basic income to social unrest and the promises of technological solutionism, the discussion asked a simple question: what kind of society do we actually want technology to help us create?