[14] Both of these processes are likely to contribute to higher productivity growth, but also to higher income inequality in the future. A more troubling scenario is one in which artificial intelligence focuses exclusively on automation. If it provides small productivity improvements over human activity it may destroy more jobs than it creates – take automated call centres as an example.
[15] While past historical episodes of technological change have always seemed to deliver as many new jobs as they replace, it is important to remember that automation, by definition, always destroys tasks. The question is just whether it creates enough new tasks in the process.  Simultaneously, the euro area is undergoing a profound demographic change.