Societal Change

How is digitalization changing society?

The increasing digitalization of everyday life is driving large-scale societal change by disrupting the bonds that connect humans to one another.

This raises critical questions about the future of our society.

When children don’t develop critical thinking and independent analysis skills because AI gives them instant answers, what kind of future leaders will they be?

When children learn to prefer the easy and sycophantic companionship of AI chatbots instead of their ‘messy’ fellow humans, what kinds of future families and communities will they form?

The advance of technologies that can simulate and thus replace human-to-human relationships pose extreme psychological risks. If unchecked, this industry is on track to create an unprecedented breakdown of human socialization, wherein a generation of youth is predominately “raised” by machines rather than humans

Dr Zak Stein, writer, educator, futurist and Founder, AI Psychological Research Coalition

The Evidence

Trust

48%

of experts believe AI will mostly harm humanity's trust in widely shared cultural values and norms

Elon University, 2025
Entry-Level AI

43%

of business leaders plan to cut junior roles due to AI efficiencies

British Standards Institution, 2025
Relationships

60%

of people fear AI will replace relationships

Seismic Foundation Report, 2025
Fertility Rates

🧒👶

in 2025, the United Nations declared global fertility rates in “unprecedented decline”

United Nations, 2025
Tech Jobs Falling

53%

drop in UK tech graduate roles projected by 2026

Institute of Future Employers, 2025
Human Extinction

10-20%

chance that AI will lead to human extinction

Geoffrey Hinton, 2024
AI Romance

19%

of students in K-12 have used AI to have a romantic relationship

Center for Democracy and Technology, 2025
Unemployment

13%

employment decline seen among early-career workers in AI-exposed jobs

Stanford, 2025

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