Elon Musk predicts work will be optional in 10-20 years: What that means for India’s future of jobs | Explained

Elon Musk looks on as US President Donald Trump speaks at the US-Saudi Investment Forum at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC on November 19, 2025. (Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP)

Elon Musk has made many bold predictions during his career, but one idea he has repeated across interviews, podcasts and global forums stands out. Musk believes that the world is heading toward a time when artificial intelligence and robotics will advance so quickly that humans will not need to work for a living at all.

Speaking on Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath’s podcast “People by WTF,” Musk said, “Maybe… I say in less than 20 years, working will be optional. Working at all will be optional. (It will be) like a hobby, pretty much.” He added that the transformation could happen earlier, saying, “Even as little as… 10 or 15 years.”

To explain how work could shift from necessity to choice, Musk used a simple analogy. He said it would be like choosing between growing vegetables in your own garden or buying them from the store. He argued that future systems powered by AI and robotics will be capable of providing everything people need. According to him, in such a future, “if you can think of it, you can have it.”

These views were not expressed in isolation. Only two weeks before the podcast, at the US–Saudi Arabia Investment Forum, Musk repeated the claim that work would become “optional” because AI and robots would take over most forms of production. At that event he also said that money itself would lose importance, claiming that “AI and humanoid robots will actually eliminate poverty.”

Musk has echoed these ideas on X, in political interviews, and during global tech conferences. In response to an X post in October about Amazon potentially replacing warehouse jobs with machines, he wrote that “AI and robots will replace all jobs,” adding that work would become something people choose to do for enjoyment.

In an interview with Ted Cruz and Ben Ferguson in March 2025, Musk predicted that AI would soon be “smarter than the smartest human” and that billions of humanoid robots would be deployed. He also said that “90 per cent of all driving would be autonomous” and that goods and services would become “close to free,” shifting the main challenge for people from earning a living to finding purpose. At VivaTech 2024 in Paris, he estimated there was an “80 per cent chance” that the world was moving into an “age of abundance.”

Musk’s confidence comes from his belief that AI and humanoid robotics will outperform humans in nearly every category of work. On Kamath’s podcast, he explained that “if AI and robotics continue to advance, working will be optional and people will have any goods and services that they want.” In his view, machines will handle physical labor, problem solving and even some emotional tasks, allowing them to produce everything required for human comfort.

He has even suggested that AI will eventually “run out of things to do to make humans happy,” which means that machines will operate beyond human needs because those needs will already be fully satisfied.

Musk’s prediction is built on a concept he shared during a 2023 conversation with former UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. He argued that the world would move past Universal Basic Income toward what he called “universal high income.” As Musk told Sunak, “Everyone will have access to this magic genie… There will be no shortage of goods and services. It will be an age of abundance.”

He said that money would become less relevant because it would no longer be needed to distribute labor. According to Musk, power generation could even become the real currency in a world where machines produce everything.

While Musk’s predictions are extreme, global automation trends are real. The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2023 found that 23 per cent of jobs will change by 2027 and that 83 million roles may be displaced. McKinsey estimated in 2023 that 30 per cent of work hours in the United States could be automated by 2030. The International Monetary Fund also warned in 2024 that 40 per cent of global jobs are “exposed” to AI.

Automation is clearly accelerating, but these trends do not confirm Musk’s belief that work will completely disappear.

India’s economic and cultural landscape makes Musk’s prediction unlikely to materialise fully. Work in India is tied to identity, respect and family responsibility. Many families depend on a single earner. Government jobs remain symbols of stability. Across much of the country, labour remains cheaper than machines, and automation is not cost-effective for many industries.

With a large informal sector and millions of people who rely on daily wages, work cannot simply become optional. India’s welfare systems also do not yet support a society where people can detach earnings from employment.

India may move toward a softer version of Musk’s future. AI could reduce repetitive tasks and make some jobs easier or more flexible. But a world where work is merely a hobby is far from India’s current reality.

Musk’s predictions may hold symbolic value by forcing societies to think about how technology shapes economies. However, India’s path will be shaped by its own cultural expectations, demographics and economic needs. Work may evolve, but it will remain central to Indian life for a long time to come.