Spain and artificial intelligence: between technological promise and structural fragility
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.59410/PREPRINT-UEA-v2026ep01-998Keywords:
artificial intelligence, labor market, global economic structure, inequalityAbstract
The expansion of AI is reshaping the labor market and the global economic structure with a depth comparable to that of industrial revolutions. Recent studies—including those by Hosseini and Lichtinger in the US—show that the intensive adoption of AI can reduce the demand for labor in routine tasks, especially in contexts with undiversified production structures. This is compounded by a broader phenomenon: the emergence of a geography of technological work, marked by the concentration of added value in countries that control platforms, algorithms, and advanced hardware, while dependent economies face increasing vulnerability. Spain, Italy, and much of Latin America share structural weaknesses that place them in an ambiguous position in this transition: they have a respectable scientific base but lack a robust industrial fabric, exhibit low investment in R&D, and suffer from labor polarization. In this context, AI acts as an accelerator of pre-existing trends: it amplifies inequalities, strains labor markets, and deepens the asymmetries between the global technological center and the peripheries. The central issue is not technological, but political and strategic: how to turn AI into an engine of endogenous development and not into a new cycle of dependency.
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