In a meta-experiment on the future of the global economy, Deutsche Bank Research Institute turned to the machine itself for answers. Rather than relying solely on traditional economic modeling, analysts asked their proprietary AI tool, dbLumina, to identify exactly which industries it intends to upend. The resulting report offers a stark vision of a “great rebalancing,” pinpointing exactly where the algorithms expect to displace human labor.
The experiment, detailed in a report titled “What AI Says About AI Eating Itself and the World,” utilized Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro model to generate a deep analysis of global sectors. The findings suggest that data-rich industries with repetitive tasks are standing on a precipice, while those requiring human empathy or manual dexterity in unpredictable environments remain safe—for now.
(And Fortune Intelligence, the wing of the Fortune newsroom that uses generative AI as a research tool, conducted a meta-meta-experiment to expedite the publishing of this news article about it.)
AI is eating its own tail
Perhaps the most ironic conclusion for Silicon Valley is that the sector most exposed to disruption may be the one building the disrupters: information technology and software. The AI found the sector to be particularly susceptible because software development is built on logic and patterns—the very qualities AI systems are designed to automate.
