AI Makes Tasks Cheaper. It Does Not Make Care Cheaper.
Benedict Evans’ 2026 AI Eats the World keynote offers a useful lens for health and care work.
AI may help with tasks: summarizing records, drafting notes, searching guidance, preparing referrals, or simplifying complex language.
But health and care work is not just a list of tasks. It also includes judgment, trust, escalation, accountability, consent, and knowing when a person needs human support.
So the public-service question is not:
Can AI do this task?
It is:
Can the service safely verify the output, protect the person affected, and keep human accountability intact?
AI may make some tasks cheaper. It does not make care cheap. It does not make responsibility cheap. It does not make verification cheap.
One Insight
AI separates tasks from jobs, but public services cannot separate automation from duty of care.
Source: Benedict Evans, AI Eats the World, 2026 keynote.
Drafted with GPT assistance. Final framing and PSA interpretation focus on public-service accountability, healthcare AI governance, and the distinction between task automation and duty of care.