John Kay and Julia Hobsbawm chaired by Nick Higham

Writer and leading commentator on the future of work Julia Hobsbawm and leading economist and financial journalist Sir John Kay discuss the changing nature of work and business and what the future might hold for us.

In The Corporation in the 21st century, Kay, a leading UK economist, says products and production have been dematerialised. The leading producers of today provide products that appear on your screen, fit in your pocket or occupy your head. He explains how the pharmaceutical industry has created life-saving vaccines yet ramps prices up to near unaffordable levels while Amazon gives us next-day delivery but has its workers urinate in bottles rather than take breaks. Kay was founding dean of Oxford Business School and winner of the Senior Wincott Award for Financial Journalism for his Financial Times columns. His previous books include Other People’s Money, winner of the Saltire Prize, and Greed is Dead.

In Working Assumptions: The Workplace after Covid and Generative AI, Hobsbawm says we are on the verge of an amazing age as generational shifts affect work and work is affected by rapid developments in generational artificial intelligence (AI). The speed and scale of the impact of Covid-19 and the arrival of Chat GPT in the workplace place us on the cusp of an era of challenge and opportunity at a pace not seen for more than a century. She brings together insights and analysis from herself and other experts on jobs and skills, commuting and office life, culture, wellbeing, leadership and generational shifts. Hobsbawm is a writer, speaker, consultant and Bloomberg commentator and columnist. She is author of six books, including Working Assumptions: What we thought we knew before Covid and Generative AI and what we know now and is a founder of the US-led Workforce Institute.

Discussions are chaired by journalist Nick Higham, who was the BBC’s first ever media correspondent and is a former presenter of Meet the Author on the BBC news channel.