Artificial intelligence has become the main driver of stock markets over the past two years, pushing valuations of major American tech giants to unprecedented levels: Microsoft is worth $3.71 trillion, Alphabet $4.33 trillion and Amazon $2.96 trillion. Replacing employees with AI agents reduces costs and increases profit margins, a dynamic considered bullish for markets as long as it does not destabilize the overall economy. Analyst Firisis describes a three-phase sequence: productivity gains without job destruction, massive replacement of human labor by agents, then a tipping point where the cumulative decline in revenues weighs on demand. This third phase raises the question of redistributing productivity gains, bringing back proposals for robot taxation, notably championed by Bill Gates and economist Robert Shiller, which face major legal obstacles under French and European law. The debate on the future of work and how societies will absorb this technological shock is only just beginning.
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