When technology increases what society knows how to do, productivity skyrockets. It has happened before and, predictably, it will happen again. It is happening, right now, with artificial intelligence and yet, just as it happened before, it generates fear and rejection.
The history of technical progress – from the steam engine to electricity, from the assembly line to personal computers – is full of portents: “Inventions will destroy jobs; millions of people will be unemployed…”.
However, with hindsight, the evidence suggests that, although each technological leap has destroyed old jobs, it has never condemned a substantial part of the population to permanent unemployment.
And that is because waves of innovation have raised productivity, generated wealth, reduced costs and expanded society’s “knowledge capital,” driving a new cycle of economic growth. We live much better than in 1780, although many spinners lost their jobs.
The core of this thesis rests on the knowledge economy. And I return to the phrase at the beginning of this article. When technology – and today, artificial intelligence – increases what society knows how to do, productivity skyrockets.
In Robert Solow’s classic growth model, this increase in productivity expands total production without the need to proportionally increase the factors of production.
When technology increases what society knows how to do, productivity skyrockets
But the story doesn’t end there. As Paul Romer argued in his theory of endogenous technological change, when knowledge is encouraged by a market system it is not exhausted: generates new ideas, products, services, specialization and division of labor.
Seen from this perspective, AI takes on a different dimension. It not only automates tasks, but democratizes and accelerates knowledge. It allows you to remember forgotten ideas, process vast information in a matter of seconds, apply solutions immediately, optimize processes and design products like we have never seen before.
This makes AI a lever capable of unleashing a sustained phase of growth – not a one-off peak – through capital accumulation, innovation and new opportunities.
However, technology is not an automatic balm. The processes of “creative destruction” They often produce imbalances: some workers lose jobs, while others must adapt, change sectors or retrain.
If pessimists think AI will destroy jobs and optimists think it will increase productivity, both are right. The loss of jobs – or job rotation – and Productivity growth are two sides of the same coin.
Is this scenario worth it? The knowledge economy offers reason for concern, but also many reasons for optimism across the educational and income spectrum. Knowledge is a factor of production, AI generates it to a greater extent and this rising tide can help improve the lives of society as a whole.
What does all this mean for Spain in the age of AI?
Meanwhile, some analysts maintain that AI will not only be a tool of efficiency, but a factor of polarization between countries. Citing data from Microsoft and the EIB, the consulting firm Capital Economics states that AI is “opening a North-South economic chasm” in Europe, and that countries like Spain could become, despite their geography, part of a “privileged club.”
The data is striking. Spain is the fifth country in the EU in the highest use of generative AI by companies, surpassing Germany and the US, and only behind Finland, Denmark, the Netherlands and Belgium, much smaller countries.
And if we talk outside the business environment, the data is even more compelling. We are the third country in the EU that uses artificial intelligence the most.
The report maintains that AI could boost annual growth by up to 1.5 percentage points for one to two decades in countries that successfully and fully implement it. And it does not seem that, despite misgivings, Spanish society is choosing to leave this technology aside.
Spain is the fifth country in the EU in the highest use of generative AI by companies, surpassing Germany and the US
This diagnosis invites reflection on Spain’s future role, not as a leader in AI development, where we are already late, but as a strategic and effective user of the available AI.
Spain can benefit if it integrates existing AI in sectors such as health, education, public administration, logistics, tourism or services. There is no need to develop a new AI model from scratch: simply adapt, implement and leverage cutting-edge custom tools. This democratizes access to knowledge and improves national productivity.
By adopting AI and improving productivity and quality in key sectors, Spain can reduce the gap with “northern” European economies, contributing to its productive modernization. This adoption can translate into greater investment, better salaries, highly qualified jobs, a more sophisticated business network and a more resilient economy.
And even if global AI is designed in other countries, local application can generate real value. Using AI to optimize administrative processes, to modernize public services, to digitize the agricultural or tourism sector or to design new business models adapted to the Iberian market can be very relevant for our economy.
Informed Optimism and Strategy
Economic history teaches us that technological change, even when it eliminates jobs, has not condemned the population to absolute unemployment. On the contrary: it increased productivity, generated new occupations, opportunities and raised the standard of living. That lesson is valid today with AI if we know how to interpret it correctly.
For a country like Spain, the challenge is not to create AI from scratch at all costs, but to integrate it intelligently, adapt it to our needs, modernize public administration, investing in human capital and using it as a lever for economic convergence.
The digital revolution does not stop. What decides the future, for us or without us, is how we respond.
*** Alicia Richart is general director of Afiniti for Spain and Portugal.
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