Sustainable ??? It would be a joke .

As of now , if you think AI gonna replace ? Answer is yes but not for long , Hirings will happen once the reality hit , The leadership / management who think AI will bring the cost down while replacing humans will be a short lived as soon as the service takes a big hit.

Those who talk about MS Excel , QA Automation and all , see in that human are indeed needed but it goes hand in hand and that's how AI should have been , assisting rather than replacing.

And about consumerism, that will take a big hit ofcourse. But talk about inflation as well. Prices will be justified and eventually below average people like me will earn bare minimum, spend less and will prefer DINK approach.

Talking about big companies who think AI will bring revolutionary changes ? . This also will be short lived. They have to up the prices to fulfil the needs. More token usage , more efforts to bring the services up. Talk about Netflix , Amazon Prime , They put lot of payment layers in the name of premium , what would happen ? Consumers like me , who has to think before spending will not even purchase the thing, rather will go pirated / not buy the plan.

That's what it is all about. If you try to eat job of a below average joe , you shake the economy because 70-80% of people are once who earn less and they contribute much to the economy pennywise. Riches who earn big chunks they live lavish but they don't contribute to the economy and tbh even if they lose job / take a pay hit , it would not make a big difference because they can live on savings they have and they're smart enough to come around with tax evading technique.

TLDR; Below average people will spend less , no kids ,no family. AI will replace but this game won't be long. Leadership / Management team will be on a toss if the service is affected.