Beyond Survival: How AI Can Help Humans Reclaim Purpose
What if the future isn’t just about humans teaching AI—but also about AI teaching humans how to uncover new purposes? This shift in roles raises deep questions about what it means to be human in a world where intelligence—human and artificial—co-evolve.
Zack Kass, Global AI Advisor and OpenAI’s former head of Go-to-Market, was recently interviewed by Technode about our human future with AI. In the article “Beyond Expo 2025: Interview with Zack Kass: AI’s Ultimate Challenge will be Crisis of Purpose,” Kass described AI’s “ultimate challenge” not as technology, but as human purpose.
If, in the future, AI creates the things I need to live – thereby eliminating the need to exchange money for the things I need – why would I work? If I don’t need to work, what drives me?
Why am I here? It’s a primal human question.
Crises of purpose aren’t new – they can emerge at any time and in many ways – from relationship changes to job loss or retirement. But maybe the emerging human + AI world isn’t signalling humans who don’t have purpose. Maybe it’s an opportunity to reimagine what we’re here to do.
From “Must-work” to “Purpose-work”
Thomas S. Bateman, D.B.A., in his article “Agency is the Highest Level of Personal Competence” (Psychology Today, March 2022), defines human agency as “acquiring significant control over your outcomes in life’s various arenas, including school, work, sports, physical health, and psychological well-being.”
According to Bateman, the degree to which we exercise agency is shaped by mindset—ranging from declining to agentic, with the agentic mindset offering the strongest link between intention and outcome. This mindset is a kind of internal fertile ground, where beliefs and behaviors meet:
I believe in myself
My pursuits are important to me
My actions support the pursuit
To act with agency, however, mindset isn’t enough. Bateman outlines four essential pillars of personal agency: forethought, implementation, self-management, and learning and adapting. These aren’t abstract ideals –they’re practical competencies. And for the first time, AI can help an individual actively engage and strengthen those competencies in the service of designing a new purpose. But that depends on the form AI takes. It must become more than a vending machine; it must become a companion.
AI As Companion
To support that kind of personalized agency, we can create ‘bots’ – like custom GPTs in ChatGPT – designed to behave in specific roles and tailored to a person’s values, aspirations, and conversation style. In turn, they become companions that offer insight unique to the individual’s experiences and ways of thinking.
A Human + AI Plan for Designing Your Purpose
With that in mind, here’s how a tailored AI companion could help you engage the four pillars of agency—not as a taskmaster, but as a co-practitioner:
Pillar 1: Forethought
Training focus: Intention-setting and future-casting
Prompts questions like “What’s one meaningful action today that serves your long-term mission?”
Helps you distinguish between urgency and significance
Encourages scenario planning: optimistic, realistic, and cautionary
Pillar 2: Implementation
Training focus: Translating goals into motion
Breaks your vision into minimum viable actions
Anticipates friction points before they derail progress
Mirrors your cadence with accountability that respects your rhythm
Pillar 3: Self-Management
Training focus: Managing energy, attention, and emotion
Checks in on your fuel levels—mental, physical, emotional
Offers micro-adjustments when your state is off
Rehearses boundaries with you to prevent overcommitment
Pillar 4: Learning and Adapting
Training focus: Course correction based on experience
Debriefs your week to extract patterns and lessons
Tests your assumptions and invites reframing
Gently flags when you’ve drifted from alignment
The Bigger Invitation
If we view AI not as a threat to human purpose but as a catalyst for it, everything shifts. AI is not limited by human perceptions, anxieties, traumas, or cultural expectations. It can help us discover what lies beyond those constraints. And as a companion, it can support our desire for new purpose.
Ask Yourself:
What kind of life would I design if my work was shaped by my purpose—not the other way around?
And what kind of AI relationship would support that design?
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