CREATIVE DESTRUCTION WITHOUT CREATION? ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND THE DECOUPLING BETWEEN PRODUCTIVITY AND HUMAN ECONOMIC INCLUSION

This article examines whether the diffusion of artificial intelligence (AI) calls for a revision of the Schumpeterian paradigm of creative destruction, according to which technological progress, while displacing existing activities and occupations, ultimately generates new productive and employment opportunities over the long run. Building on the principal theories of technological change and economic growth, the paper develops and formalizes the Productivity Employment Decoupling (PED) hypothesis, according to which productivity gains resulting from AI adoption may not be accompanied by a corresponding expansion in labor demand. The central question addressed in this study is whether AI represents a structural discontinuity with respect to previous general-purpose technologies. Its capacity to replicate cognitive functions, the rapid scalability of automated systems, and the presence of strong increasing returns may weaken the traditional compensation mechanisms that have historically facilitated employment reallocation following technological innovation. In this context, the relationship between technological progress and job creation can no longer be regarded as an automatic outcome of the innovation process. The paper further develops a theoretical framework aimed at identifying the economic conditions under which productivity growth and employment dynamics may increasingly diverge, highlighting the channels through which artificial intelligence can amplify labor substitution without generating compensatory employment opportunities of comparable magnitude. The article's primary contribution is to extend the Schumpeterian theory of creative destruction by introducing a formalization of the Productivity Employment Decoupling (PED) hypothesis and by outlining the implications of this phenomenon for the evolution of contemporary economic systems.