The Future of Artificial Intelligence: What Comes Next?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer a distant possibility. It's likely already a part of your daily life, whether that means Spotify recommending your next favorite song or Copilot summarizing your meetings at work. Now that chatbots, virtual assistants and a slew of other AI tools are routinely used, what's next for the technology — and for the world?

What Are the Positive and Negative Impacts of AI?

AI's impact is complex, and society is seeing a wide range of effects just a few years into the AI boom, according to Dr. George Siemens, chief AI officer at Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU).

"Some of these impacts are positive, such as the ability for people to learn, develop ideas, improve their writing and the range of professional impacts, such as increased accuracy of medical diagnosis when AI is used," he said. "Other impacts are more worrying, such as the environmental impact of AI, the centralization of power in the hands of a few organizations and cases of AI misuse for fraud and manipulation."

How Will AI Be Used in the Future?

Now that generative AI has established itself across industries, a new era of the technology is on the horizon.

"In terms of the near future of AI development, it’s increasingly multi-modal, local and embedded," Siemens said. "Multi-modal refers to images, video, voice, and even synthetic worlds. Local refers to AI on our devices and in our apps — i.e., we no longer 'go to AI' but it is ambient technology that is accessible where we are."

AI agents, which are already on the market in some forms, are also expected to become more prevalent as AI advances, according to Mae Mullen, an organic marketing and AI strategist at SNHU. Mullen has been working with AI and large language models (LLMs) for seven years, including five years of professional experience.

"Rather than acting as answer engines, agents will be able to autonomously handle initiating follow-up tasks, making decisions and collaborating with other AI systems," she said.

According to a 2026 report from the World Economic Forum (WEF), the degree of society's acceptance or rejection of AI agents will likely have a large impact on the future of jobs and the economy in the coming years (WEF PDF source).

The advancement of robotics may change things, too, Siemens noted. "While robots are not yet great at doing our laundry, the velocity of current development suggests that this limitation is short-term," he said.

Curious about how you can use AI today? Keep reading: How to Use AI in Daily Life

What Are the 4 Futures of AI?

As of now, it's too early to know exactly how AI will impact the world, but WEF's report notes a few distinct possibilities regarding how AI may impact jobs and the economy, depending on workforce readiness and how quickly AI advances.

"There's going to be so many changes in the landscape that there's an element of an unknowable future," said Dr. Robert MacAuslan, vice president of artificial intelligence at SNHU, who holds a PhD in Sociology.

MacAuslan called himself a practical skeptic when it comes to artificial intelligence, but he noted that AI has the potential to help address certain structural inequities if used in the right way. "Whether or not we do it right as a society, whether or not we make the right decisions to actually carry that forward, is still very TBD," he said.

With that unknowability in mind, these are the four futures of AI and their characteristics, according to WEF:

Supercharged Progress

Conditions: Exponential AI advancement meets widespread workforce readiness

In a future defined by supercharged technological progress, society embraces the "agentic leap" toward AI automation, WEF said, with many jobs disappearing but new roles working with AI agents emerging quickly, as well.

Despite the workforce readiness that helps define this future described by WEF, AI governance, ethics and social safety nets are projected to struggle to keep up with this rate of technological advancement. Even with widespread workforce readiness, more pronounced economic inequality and harsher environmental impacts are expected.

The Age of Displacement

Conditions: Exponential AI advancement meets limited workforce readiness

A future defined by displacement is what many would call the worst-case scenario for the job market, which WEF said would be worsened without adequate social safety nets. In this possibility detailed by WEF, the workforce can't keep up with technological advances, leading to mass job losses, skyrocketing unemployment and mounting societal instability.

For Mullen, AI shouldn't fully replace any human jobs — but she acknowledged that many employers don't share the same sentiment. "Though I would argue that LLMs are not suitable for fully replacing a human job due to bias and hallucination, the reality is that many companies are willing to accept these risks to cut operation costs," she said.

Stalled Progress

Conditions: Incremental AI advancement meets limited workforce readiness

In a future of stalled progress, AI advances at a more manageable speed, but the workforce lacks the skills to embrace the changes that occur. WEF said this could result in a bifurcated economy, where those with high incomes find more success while those with lower incomes face even harsher challenges.

Co-Pilot Economy

Conditions: Incremental AI advancement meets widespread workforce readiness

A co-pilot economy prioritizes augmentation over automation and takes a more reserved approach to AI adoption. In this scenario, WEF said that early investments in workforce training and AI governance could help to cushion impacts on the job market while supporting gradual technological advancements.

Polarization and AI misinformation and disinformation are expected to thrive in this future, leading to shifts in the landscape of trust.

Keep reading about AI and the job market: Will AI Take Your Job?

What's Your Vision for the Future?

Think about the future that you'd most like to live in. It doesn't have to look exactly like any of the possibilities described above. "I am hopeful that the longer-term impact of AI will result in us becoming more human," Siemens said, noting a TEDxSNHU talk he gave on this topic in 2025.

While the industrial revolution resulted in many beneficial technological advances, Siemens said it has also resulted in disconnection and isolation. "What if AI could assist in us returning to our humanity?" he said. "What if the mundane knowledge work that AI does well frees us to embrace our human attributes and engagement with others more fully?"

Just as it's important to consider the ways that AI can improve society, it's also crucial to reflect on the harm it can cause. Siemens recommended reflecting on ethics, environmental impacts and your personal values to determine where you think AI should be used and areas where you feel AI doesn't belong.

Learn more: Understanding AI Ethics: Issues, Principles and Practices

If your vision for the future isn't aligned with what you see occurring in the world, you may decide it's time to take action by getting into AI, yourself.

How Can You Shape the Future of AI?

Learning more about AI can help prepare you to contribute to conversations about how and where AI should be used at work, in your community and globally. You might also pursue a career in AI that allows you to play a part in ensuring equitable outcomes and upholding AI ethics.

To get started, you could opt to take individual AI courses at the college level or earn a badge through a 6-week professional skills course, such as SNHU's Generative AI: Concept to Innovation and Advanced Generative AI: Innovation to Transformation.

Mullen recommended developing your coding skills, too, either on your own or through coursework. "Learn Python," she said. "Having a strong foundation in that programming language will allow you not only to understand how AI systems process data but also allow you to create your own AI applications more easily."

Once you're comfortable with the tech, you'll be ready to make your impact. "I recommend that individuals start with a problem to solve and explore how and where AI can assist," Siemens said.

Mars Girolimon '21 '23G is a staff writer at Southern New Hampshire University where they earned their bachelor's and master's, both in English and creative writing. In addition to their work in higher education, Girolimon's short fiction is published in the North American Review, So It Goes by The Kurt Vonnegut Museum & Library, X-R-A-Y and more. Connect with them on LinkedIn.