Dubai Thought Leader Sounds Alarm on AI’s Human Cost

Jennifer McShane Bary Warns of Global Social and Economic Crisis if AI Replaces People Instead of Empowering Them

DUBAI, DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, October 12, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- As artificial intelligence accelerates from boardroom concept to boardroom directive, global project management leader Jennifer McShane Bary, CEO of JMB Project Management, is raising a red flag: if corporations replace humans instead of re-skilling them, the social fabric that sustains every economy could begin to unravel.

“AI should be the next industrial revolution — not the next social collapse,” says McShane Bary. “If we remove human purpose, human income, and human creativity from the economy, who is left to buy, to innovate, to lead, or to dream?”
Her comments come amid growing evidence from the IMF, OECD, and World Economic Forum that as many as 40 percent of jobs worldwide are now exposed to AI automation — a transformation with the potential to create trillions in new value, but also millions of displaced workers.

The Productivity Paradox
In her upcoming white paper, The Human Dividend: Building Value in the Age of AI, McShane Bary explores what she calls the “productivity paradox.”
“AI will make production cheaper,” she explains, “but if workers are replaced rather than retrained, purchasing power evaporates. A factory of algorithms producing goods for unemployed consumers is not efficiency — it’s economic absurdity.”

She points to the late-stage industrial revolution as a warning. When machines first displaced manual labor in the 19th century, governments eventually introduced labor rights, social safety nets, and new education systems. “That took 100 years,” she says. “We don’t have that luxury this time.”

Ripple Effects Across Society
JMB Project Management’s internal research outlines five interlinked consequences of rapid AI-driven labor displacement:
1. Mass unemployment and under-employment: Administrative, customer-service, and content roles — once considered entry-level — are being eroded.
2. Reduced consumer spending: Without wages, households lose purchasing power, shrinking demand for the very goods and services corporations hope to sell.
3. Falling government revenue: Taxation systems built on payroll and consumption falter when income collapses.
4. Rising inequality: Wealth concentrates around data-owning conglomerates, leaving small enterprises struggling to compete.
5. Social instability and crime: Economic despair and digital fraud rise in tandem, driven by both desperation and new AI-enabled tools.

“These are not science-fiction forecasts,” McShane Bary warns. “They are already visible in subtle patterns across global markets — declining entry-level hiring, wage stagnation in clerical work, and the quiet rise of AI-driven fraud.”
Human-Centered Transformation

McShane Bary’s company, JMB Project Management LLC, has spent two decades guiding public and private organizations through digital transformation projects across the Middle East. Her view is clear: the next wave of AI integration must include a structured human transition plan.

“AI should be a partner, not a predator,” she says. “Every automation initiative should include a budget line for human re-deployment — training, mentorship, or re-skilling. If we can manage billion-dollar infrastructure projects, we can manage a humane transition.”

She proposes a “Human Dividend Framework” built on four pillars:
1. Redeploy: Shift workers from repetitive to analytical or creative functions.
2. Retrain: Fund digital literacy and AI-complementary skills through public-private partnerships.
3. Redistribute: Modernize tax codes to capture value from capital and data rather than labor alone.
4. Reimagine: Use productivity gains to shorten the workweek, stimulate entrepreneurship, and enhance quality of life.
These principles, she argues, can turn disruption into shared prosperity.

The Corporate Imperative
For McShane Bary, the moral question is inseparable from the business case.
“Boards must understand that ethical automation is strategic risk management,” she notes. “A company that lays off half its workforce for short-term margin gains may discover it has also laid off half its customers.”
She urges large enterprises to report ‘Responsible Automation Metrics’ alongside ESG disclosures — measuring not only emissions and diversity, but also how many employees were redeployed, re-trained, or elevated through AI adoption.

JMB Project Management is already embedding these metrics into its consulting practice for clients across government, technology, and luxury retail sectors. “We track not just implementation success, but human impact,” she says.

A Warning for Governments
Governments, too, face a reckoning. Labor taxes — the backbone of most national budgets — could shrink sharply as automation expands. Without new frameworks to capture value from capital and digital assets, social programs and infrastructure could be starved of funding.

McShane Bary advocates for a new fiscal balance: broadening tax bases to include AI-driven profits, closing loopholes that allow intellectual-property profit shifting, and reinvesting proceeds into workforce renewal.
“Robot taxes miss the point,” she says. “It’s not about punishing technology. It’s about aligning fiscal policy with the new sources of value creation.”

The Crime Curve
The darker frontier of AI, she adds, lies in crime. Europol and Interpol both report exponential growth in AI-assisted cybercrime — from deepfake identity theft to synthetic voice fraud.

“When millions lose jobs and face no path to re-entry, some will turn to the black economy — and now they have AI tools to do it,” she warns. “We must invest in both cyber-forensics and community re-employment programs. Security and opportunity go hand in hand.”

From Dubai to the World
Operating from Dubai — one of the world’s fastest-adopting smart economies — McShane Bary sees both the promise and peril up close. “The UAE has embraced AI strategically,” she notes. “But it has also emphasized innovation with responsibility — a balance the rest of the world should study.”

She envisions Dubai becoming a global case study in inclusive automation: leveraging AI for efficiency while preserving dignity and purpose.

JMB Project Management is developing a regional “AI Transition Lab” to pilot workforce-redeployment programs, policy templates, and cross-industry standards for humane automation. The goal is to demonstrate that technological leadership and social stewardship can coexist.

The Human Dividend
In her closing remarks, McShane Bary frames the issue not as a technological dilemma but a moral one.
“We are the first generation to teach machines to think — and the last that can decide what thinking means,” she says. “If we teach AI to create without compassion, we will inherit a world of efficiency without empathy.”
Her call to action is direct:
1. For corporations: build AI adoption plans that protect human capability.
2. For governments: modernize fiscal and social systems before the wave crests.
3. For individuals: invest relentlessly in learning, creativity, and emotional intelligence — the skills AI cannot replicate.

“The question is not whether AI will change everything,” McShane Bary concludes. “It already has. The question is whether humanity will change with wisdom or with regret.”

About Jennifer McShane Bary
Jennifer McShane Bary is the Founder and CEO of JMB Project Management LLC, a Dubai-based consultancy specializing in digital transformation, PMO innovation, and strategic project delivery. With over two decades of global experience, she is the creator of the trademarked PMO-in-a-Box^® solution and the driving force behind the Middle East Summit of Excellence, which celebrates innovation and leadership across the region. Recognized for her visionary approach to technology and humanity, McShane Bary advocates for ethical innovation and inclusive progress.

Jennifer McShane Bary
JMB Project Management
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