AI won’t just change jobs – it will redefine what it means to be human: Al Gergawi

Dubai: The biggest transformation in human history didn’t happen in factories or tech labs — it happened inside us.

That was the core message from Mohammad Al Gergawi, UAE Minister of Cabinet Affairs and Chairman of the World Governments Summit, as he opened the global gathering in Dubai on Tuesday, February 3.

Al Gergawi said the world is not simply going through another wave of technological change. Instead, humanity itself is entering a new phase in which human capabilities are being fundamentally redefined.

To explain the speed of change, he offered a striking comparison. If the entire age of the universe were compressed into a single year, humans would appear only on the final day — and all of recorded history would fit into the last ten seconds. Yet in that brief moment, humans transformed civilisation.

Today, he said, we are living through another such moment.

The first force reshaping humanity is artificial intelligence. Unlike previous tools, AI does not just help humans work faster — it thinks, learns and analyses alongside them.

In healthcare, AI already supports doctors by spotting patterns the human eye can miss. Al Gergawi said the diagnosis could soon become fully AI-powered, changing how people experience healthcare in everyday life.

The second force is advanced medicine. With the cost of genetic sequencing falling sharply, personalised healthcare is becoming possible. Diseases may soon be detected years before symptoms appear — sometimes even before birth.

Over the last 100 years, global life expectancy has doubled. Al Gergawi said it could double again in the next century, raising major questions around work, retirement and public services.

The third force is brain science. Future breakthroughs, he said, are more likely to come from understanding the human mind than exploring outer space.

Early brain–computer interface trials already allow some people to control devices using their thoughts — a sign that human learning and cognition could soon expand dramatically.

The fourth force is digital environments. With billions online, people now live multiple versions of themselves across platforms, competing for attention, time and identity.

Al Gergawi’s warning was clear: the real risk is not governments falling behind technology — but falling behind humanity itself.