How the AI boom was enabled by a 1970s economic revolution

The creation of the service economy in the 1970s, driven by OECD economists, revolutionized how nations viewed commerce and wealth, moving away from goods to include diverse intangible services globally.
The shift towards a service-oriented economy led to the rise of the generalist management style and the importance of statistics, benchmarks, and standardized workflows.
AI technology today mirrors this services revolution by focusing on universal models that apply universally, with AI-centric businesses seeing immense value in global market strategies.
The promise of AI, such as early detection of illness, is bundled into a lucrative but poorly defined tool mainly used by US providers to maintain competitive advantages.
The parallel between AI and the services economy leads to critical questions about who benefits from this technological shift, as it appears to enrich large corporations and give rise to sovereignty issues globally.
Historical lessons from the service economy revolution warn against the dangers of financial speculation and monopolistic corporate growth, pointing to a need for a careful examination of AI’s broader societal impacts.

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