_Some_ knowledge workers may be unemployed. The vast majority? Reduce the overhead on tedium like data entry, writing e-mail, etc. They'll be able to expand what they can do, because AI models like ChatGPT could be trained on company data and used to reduce errors, etc.
If anything, middle managers will be the ones to get squeezed out when they no longer have work to do.
There's actually a kind of internet famous novel where the exact opposite happens. I don't remember the name of it or the site it's on, but initial premise has AI automating management (starting with pretty menial things like directing workers at fast food restaurant, and working its way up the value chain).
It was pretty interesting, but I only got as far as the protagonist getting interned in a kind of debtors prison once his savings ran out and he couldn't afford to live outside of it (due to all the automation). The prison was theoretically open, but if you wandered too far away, robots would tranq you (after very many "nice" exhortations to return) and you'd wake up back in your bed.
it actually ends on a positive note, it's trying to compare two possible ways society could respond to the automation revolution.
Yes, that's it!
> it actually ends on a positive note, it's trying to compare two possible ways society could respond to the automation revolution.
Yeah, but I stopped reading at that point. Partially because I had something else to do, and partially because it seemed like a utopian fantasy.