Professor Yu Xiong featured in the Daily Express on the future of white-collar work
Professor Yu Xiong, a Fellow of Academy of Social Sciences, has been featured in the Daily Express as a guest columnist on one of the most debated questions in the economy right now: what does artificial intelligence actually mean for white-collar jobs?
Published on 27 February 2026, the piece titled "AI fight is not man vs machine but between open and closed minds" pushes back against the idea that professional work is facing an extinction event. The argument is more precise than simple reassurance: AI is not eliminating white-collar work, it is changing which parts of it carry economic value.
The column draws a clear line between tasks that rely on repetitive thinking, which are becoming cheaper and faster to perform, and the capabilities that are harder to replicate: judgment, contextual understanding, ethical reasoning, and the willingness to take responsibility for decisions. A manager may use AI to analyse data, Professor Xiong writes, but deciding how to lead a team remains a human task.
The article places the current moment within a longer pattern. The steam engine re-organised labour. Electricity reshaped factories. The internet transformed commerce. Each felt destabilising at the time. Professor Xiong draws on World Economic Forum projections estimating that around 22% of today's jobs will be affected between 2025 and 2030, and notes that Goldman Sachs research points to transitional rises in unemployment as displaced workers look for new roles. These figures are treated not as cause for panic, but as a measure of the preparation required.
The risks are not evenly distributed. Lower-wage workers face higher pressure to change occupations, and women face greater displacement risks than men. Professor Xiong is direct about this: without policy action, the transition could deepen existing divides. Whether it does depends on whether governments modernise skills systems, whether retraining proves effective, and whether new industries receive the support they need.
The piece identifies where the real contest lies over the next five years, not between people and machines, but between those who learn to work with AI and those who do not. What follows from that is a practical argument for teaching critical thinking, problem-framing and adaptability rather than task execution alone.
Related sustainable development goals
