Why AI is the biggest test yet for Inclusive Capitalism – and its greatest opportunity

Insights from our Climate Week 2025 Convening

Artificial intelligence (AI) offers great potential to generate economic growth and broad prosperity, but, if unmanaged, it risks deepening inequality, displacing workers, and driving resource-intensive growth. The Council for Inclusive Capitalism focused on this double-edged relationship between AI and growth — with a particular focus on AI’s impact on the workforce — at our New York Climate Week 2025 convening held alongside the UN General Assembly gathering.

Our roundtable, “Navigating the AI Transition: Creating Long-term Value and Inclusive Capitalism,” brought together leaders from business, finance, labor, academia, and civil society. It was co-hosted by World Bank President Ajay Banga, Bank of America Chair & CEO Brian Moynihan, and Council for Inclusive Capitalism Founder & CEO Lynn Forester de Rothschild. The meeting recognized the shared responsibility of business, investors, and government to facilitate a workforce- and community-centered AI transition, highlighting strategies to ensure the productivity gains of AI lead to equal opportunity and fairness.

This summary includes key takeaways that emerged from the convening, which was held under the Chatham House Rule.

A call for responsible innovation

Participants addressed the AI investment boom, which some believed could be shielding the U.S. economy from a slowdown. There was also broad concern that AI-driven growth could coexist with a stock market bubble and a wave of job dislocation in the developed world, while exacerbating global divisions and social inequality. If AI ultimately underperforms, fiscal and economic stresses might escalate; yet if it succeeds, large-scale job displacement could trigger social backlash.

“Capitalism’s big question — how to be fair to working people — has acquired a greater urgency with the AI revolution,” warned the CEO of a large asset management firm. An economist and advisor in the asset management industry added that current market incentives are causing AI to be “diffused in the richest part of society and in the richest part of the world.”

There was a candid discussion of the enormity of the challenge facing the world. Structural enablers of technology’s diffusion — such as abundant electricity, data computing power, and a trained workforce — are missing in many parts of the developing world. Meanwhile, technology is developing rapidly in a handful of countries and racing ahead of global governance and policy frameworks.

Reasons cited for these imbalances include:

– a disproportionately high concentration of knowledge, talent, and resources in the private sector;
– the economic system’s tendency to socialize risks and privatize rewards; and
– lack of global coordination amid intensifying competition between the U.S. and China.

At the same time, many participants agreed that the transformational potential of AI presents an opportunity to make the economic system more equitable and sustainable. A leader of an international financial institution summed up the challenge: “How can we allow the technology to grow while creating the capacity for it to benefit everyone? We have to think this through faster today than in prior digital revolutions.”

The discussion then turned to how to advance responsible innovation without stifling progress. Below are some key takeaways.

The hard work of laying down guardrails

There are no shortcuts to navigating the AI transition. “For a full understanding of the impact of AI on humanity, we need to not only look at the big picture, but also bring it down to the way people live and work,” said a former senior U.S. government official. There was broad agreement that issues like ethics, governance, privacy, and the integrity of the information ecosystem must be front and center — or else innovation and growth priorities will fall behind national security considerations.

Some speakers highlighted the role of public-private partnerships, which have historically incubated general-purpose technologies, while enabling responsible innovation and competition within the private sector. “The state must co-invest in AI and regulate it in an intelligent way, as a true partner. We need to get those good symbiotic public-private partnerships right from the start, or we’re always going to be in catch-up mode,” said a noted academic and thought leader on inclusive capitalism.

Think small

Participants working in emerging economies brought attention to the concept of “Small AI,” which runs on context-specific small data sets and can solve big problems without requiring massive infrastructure. A speaker shared examples of how Small AI is already delivering results in diverse communities around the world — from helping small farmers in India improve yields to delivering health services in rural Africa. “We have to multiply these Small AI users. Otherwise, we run the risk of creating an even bigger divide over the coming 10–15 years,” he emphasized.

Emerging success stories show that Small AI initiatives thrive when supported by public-private partnerships that combine government platforms and private sector strategies, and when they work closely with local communities.

Increase corporate accountability

There was a spirited debate about companies’ workforce strategies for the AI transition. Some speakers faulted the corporate mindset for prioritizing cost-efficiency over workforce development, leading to labor displacement instead of labor enhancement. The CEO of a financial institution advocated for managers taking responsibility for guiding the workforce toward new pathways as a principle for inclusive capitalism: “They are best suited to do it. They know exactly which job will go away, and they know exactly which job a person can be retrained for.”

Attendees also highlighted impact accounting as a tool to align markets with long-term outcomes, by incorporating social and environmental metrics into financial valuations. One participant noted that “Investors will be the first to use them and will begin to influence the behavior of companies.”

Advance pre-distribution strategies

Participants supported pre-distribution mechanisms, like skills- and wealth-building opportunities for workers, to make the labor market more fair — recognizing that such mechanisms enjoy broad support compared to redistribution tools like raising taxes on the wealthy. It was pointed out that some companies are already leveraging AI to facilitate upward mobility for entry-level workers as well as those in roles like customer service, coding, and transportation services.

The focus of forward-thinking companies is on reskilling and upskilling with the right guardrails in place. “We are thinking about how to make all this fair, unbiased, and in the service of people because it is in the interest of business to have talented, engaged people,” said the leader of a large foundation.

A pre-distribution mechanism the Council for Inclusive Capitalism supports is expansion of employee ownership programs, especially among communities that have historically been excluded from opportunities to build equity. An ownership economy has the potential to mitigate rising inequality while giving workers a direct voice in the future of the company, as AI continues to transform businesses and the economy.

Address the AI–energy nexus

Could AI power the energy transition by accelerating our shift to efficient low-carbon energy? Or will the growing power demand of large companies increase emissions, deplete resources, and raise prices for consumers? While these questions remain unanswered, there was consensus about the need to ensure that the AI revolution does not impose higher energy costs on local communities.

Participants also agreed that the Council’s Just Transition Framework — created in collaboration with BP, Reliance, CalPERS, State Street, and others — laid a robust foundation for people-centered transitions. Onward work should focus on how technological change and the energy transition intersect with workforce challenges, and why these issues must be addressed together.

Looking Ahead

Learnings from this roundtable are also shaping the agenda for the forthcoming Conference for Inclusive Capitalism in the UK in Fall 2026. In the months leading up to the Conference, the Council will continue to bring together business leaders, investors, and other experts to advance research and advocacy on navigating the AI transition in ways that promote equity, inclusion, and long-term economic resilience.