Eventually, the western world will need to find other motivations to live other than with ‘work’ always being the number one reason.
This will be a very difficult sea change in priorities.
Some will refuse to change, with work remaining the top priority for means of survival. Many unemployed will be crowded into the few remaining unautomated job categories.
The most fortunate of this group will have carved out a lucrative niche for themselves. They will do something not yet possible for a machine system to do.
Somewhere down the line, the value of human contact will be ‘rediscovered’ and seen as a most valuable commodity.
Right now, the most likely and potentially frightening use of AI will be when TPTB discover that the best way to ration health care is via an all-encompassing medical AI. Who needs “death panels” when the AI can make all the tough decisions for you? Got an expensive disease? Not able to be a viable economic contributor to society??? Off to Carousel with you.
(gratuitous Logan’s Run reference)
Obviously this can’t quite happen yet, in part because a particular political bloc needs unviable economic non-contributors as their voting power bloc. However, once capitalism and democracy are on the ash heap of history and the oligarchs have cemented their grip on power, hey, the sky’s the limit, right?