The best books on AI and the future of work

Why am I passionate about this?

I have over 2 decades of finance control and general management experience spanning the manufacturing and retail sectors, in big names like LVMH. A finance controller’s job is all about efficiency and involves learning every new tool available that can help to achieve that goal. Through this work, I realized how many people are not ready for the tidal wave of disruption about to hit employees with AI and other technological changes. I was utterly shocked at not being able to find a single sensible guidebook with solutions actionable by workers.


I wrote...

AI Battle Royale: How to Protect Your Job from Disruption in the 4th Industrial Revolution

By Ashley Recanati,

Book cover of AI Battle Royale: How to Protect Your Job from Disruption in the 4th Industrial Revolution

What is my book about?

Tech progress is accelerating, posing a serious challenge to society. The impact on work is but one of the areas affected, albeit a crucial one. How does this change the game? Where does AI destroy our value, obsolete our expertise, and open the floodgates to cheap labor? And what can we do about it, regardless of age and profession?

The looming threat is not one of massive unemployment but of a reshuffling of value in labor, one bound to exacerbate the middle-class squeeze. This will trigger an open rivalry for the scarce good-paying jobs, creating losers and winners. This book is for wannabe winners in quest of guidance. It was written for a simple yet most puzzling reason: that no such book existed. Until now.

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies

Ashley Recanati Why did I love this book?

The first comprehensive book on new tech and its impacts, following big steps made in AI progress in the early 2010s. The authors bring home the point that we are undergoing a watershed moment as tools no longer substitute merely for physical labor encroach on mental tasks – hence the book’s title.

After centuries of fleeing blue-collar jobs to take refuge in cerebral work, we are being left with nowhere to run. Not only that, but past technology would automate a given task, whereas the looming Artificial Intelligence is bound to intervene in many, many tasks currently handled by humans.

By Erik Brynjolfsson, Andrew McAfee,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked The Second Machine Age as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In recent years, computers have learned to diagnose diseases, drive cars, write clean prose and win game shows. Advances like these have created unprecedented economic bounty but in their wake median income has stagnated and employment levels have fallen. Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee reveal the technological forces driving this reinvention of the economy and chart a path towards future prosperity. Businesses and individuals, they argue, must learn to race with machines. Drawing on years of research, Brynjolfsson and McAfee identify the best strategies and policies for doing so. A fundamentally optimistic book, The Second Machine Age will radically alter…


Book cover of Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future

Ashley Recanati Why did I love this book?

A wakeup call for many. Martin made the case of how tech is accelerating and impacting work, bringing the threat of massive unemployment to the public scene, and insisting that it’s not only blue-collar jobs that are concerned.

Critics noted a narrow stance that fails to account for factors like shifting demographics and trends like gigging. And massive unemployment has not yet materialized, though to his defense less than a decade has passed since. The only remedy from Martin – Universal Basic Income – is not a miracle solution applicable worldwide.

The book’s focus is more on convincing audiences of the upcoming problems than working on solutions. Setting aside these critics, Rise of the Robots remains an undeniable classic for anyone curious about tech’s impact on work.

By Martin Ford,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Rise of the Robots as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Winner of the 2015 FT & McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award A New York Times Bestseller Top Business Book of 2015 at Forbes One of NBCNews.com 12 Notable Science and Technology Books of 2015What are the jobs of the future? How many will there be? And who will have them? As technology continues to accelerate and machines begin taking care of themselves, fewer people will be necessary. Artificial intelligence is already well on its way to making good jobs" obsolete: many paralegals, journalists, office workers, and even computer programmers are poised to be replaced by robots and smart…


Book cover of The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology

Ashley Recanati Why did I love this book?

Kurzweil’s classic stems from a single observation: that technology accelerates at an exponential rate.

He goes beyond Moore’s Law to make a much broader principle of this, then uses this framework to make an insane number of predictions in a wide variety of fields, boldly going farther than where more futurists dare venture. He does not hesitate to provide exact dates, for instance for the birthing of Artificial Super-Intelligence. In hindsight we can say that several predictions have not materialized at the dates he gave.

The book remains fascinating nonetheless, and Ray’s enthusiasm for the future is deeply contagious. A must-read for anyone wanting to transition from science fiction to future science as it is in the labs. One that remains relevant and not particularly outdated.  

By Ray Kurzweil,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked The Singularity Is Near as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"Startling in scope and bravado." -Janet Maslin, The New York Times

"Artfully envisions a breathtakingly better world." -Los Angeles Times

"Elaborate, smart and persuasive." -The Boston Globe

"A pleasure to read." -The Wall Street Journal

One of CBS News's Best Fall Books of 2005 * Among St Louis Post-Dispatch's Best Nonfiction Books of 2005 * One of Amazon.com's Best Science Books of 2005

A radical and optimistic view of the future course of human development from the bestselling author of How to Create a Mind and The Singularity is Nearer who Bill Gates calls "the best person I know at…


Book cover of Bold: How to Go Big, Create Wealth, and Impact the World

Ashley Recanati Why did I love this book?

Diamandis’ book is one of hope, sort of like applying Kurzweil’s futurism to pure business. And like his friend Kurzweil, the author’s enthusiasm is contagious: one emerges from this book ready to march forth and change the world.

Peter insists that while we may look back at the successes of Zuckerberg or Musk, the best is yet to come; that looking back a few decades from now, people will think: “this was a formidable time to set out and start a business”.

Indeed that was the case at the first stages of every industrial revolution, and the 4th should bear no different. Unless entrepreneurship is suffocated by Big Tech incumbents and overly cautious regulators. 

By Peter H Diamandis, Steven Kotler,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Bold as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"A visionary roadmap for people who believe they can change the world-and invaluable advice about bringing together the partners and technologies to help them do it." -President Bill Clinton

A radical, how-to guide for using exponential technologies, moonshot thinking, and crowd-powered tools, Bold unfolds in three parts. Part One focuses on the exponential technologies that are disrupting today's Fortune 500 companies and enabling upstart entrepreneurs to go from "I've got an idea" to "I run a billion-dollar company" far faster than ever before. The authors provide exceptional insight into the power of 3D printing, artificial intelligence, robotics, networks and sensors,…


Book cover of AI 2041: Ten Visions for Our Future

Ashley Recanati Why did I love this book?

This incredible book consists in 10 future topics. Each one starts with a short story from a science fiction writer, that delves into a topic – deepfakes, AI as a tailored educational companion, the impacts of Big Data applied to insurance premiums…

The stories usually leave the reader full with a sour taste in the mouth. Each is then followed by an analysis by futurist Kai-Fu Lee. The combination of science fiction and a cold study of the potential routes and ethical impacts of the tech at stake is a powerful recipe that makes for an enjoying, thought-provoking read.

I also found that the time devoted to each topic was not too short, not too long (compared to some other books). Think of it as “the book version of Black Mirror”.        

By Kai-Fu Lee, Chen Qiufan,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked AI 2041 as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A WALL STREET JOURNAL, WASHINGTON POST, AND FINANCIAL TIMES BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

In this ground-breaking blend of imaginative storytelling and scientific forecasting, a pioneering AI expert and a leading writer of speculative fiction join forces to answer an imperative question: How will artificial intelligence change our world within twenty years?

AI will be the defining development of the twenty-first century. Within two decades, aspects of daily human life will be unrecognizable. AI will generate unprecedented wealth, revolutionize medicine and education through human-machine symbiosis, and create brand new forms of communication and entertainment. In liberating us from routine work,…


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A Diary in the Age of Water

By Nina Munteanu,

Book cover of A Diary in the Age of Water

Nina Munteanu Author Of Darwin's Paradox

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Writer Ecologist Mother Teacher Explorer

Nina's 3 favorite reads in 2023

What is my book about?

This climate fiction novel follows four generations of women and their battles against a global giant that controls and manipulates Earth’s water. Told mostly through a diary and drawing on scientific observation and personal reflection, Lynna’s story unfolds incrementally, like climate change itself. Her gritty memoir describes a near-future Toronto in the grips of severe water scarcity.

Single mother and limnologist Lynna witnesses disturbing events as she works for the powerful international utility CanadaCorp. Fearing for the welfare of her rebellious teenage daughter, Lynna sets in motion a series of events that tumble out of her control with calamitous consequence. The novel explores identity, relationship, and our concept of what is “normal”—as a nation and an individual—in a world that is rapidly and incomprehensibly changing.

A Diary in the Age of Water

By Nina Munteanu,

What is this book about?

Centuries from now, in a post-climate change dying boreal forest of what used to be northern Canada, Kyo, a young acolyte called to service in the Exodus, discovers a diary that may provide her with the answers to her yearning for Earth’s past—to the Age of Water, when the “Water Twins” destroyed humanity in hatred—events that have plagued her nightly in dreams. Looking for answers to this holocaust—and disturbed by her macabre longing for connection to the Water Twins—Kyo is led to the diary of a limnologist from the time just prior to the destruction. This gritty memoir describes a…


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