Artificial intelligence is not just transforming the economy; it is fundamentally redefining the core principles of economic theory.

From the Phillips Curve to portfolio optimization, and from the Laffer Curve to Lewis’s dual-sector model, the core frameworks that have shaped economics for over a century are now evolving through intelligent machines, algorithms, and data-driven decision-making. In this work, Tshilidzi Marwala reanalyzes 18 fundamental principles of economic thought, such as demand and supply, rational choice, information asymmetry, mechanism design, agency theory, comparative advantage, growth, governance, and market efficiency, from an AI perspective.

Drawing on economics, artificial intelligence, finance, public policy, and global governance, the book explains how AI is changing productivity, labor markets, inflation, competition, taxation, and the relationships between states, companies, and citizens. It shows that traditional ideas based on scarcity, human labor, limited rationality, and static institutions are gradually being replaced by a modern economic framework driven by intelligent capital, algorithmic coordination, and autonomous systems.

The outcome is a comprehensive and timely framework for understanding the political economy of the AI era, detailed in analysis, globally oriented, and essential for policymakers, scholars, business leaders, and anyone seeking to understand how intelligence is becoming the primary driver of economic transformation.

Tshilidzi Marwala is the Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Rector of the United Nations University, based in Tokyo. A mechanical engineer and computer scientist with a special interest in economics, he holds a doctorate in Artificial Intelligence and Engineering from the University of Cambridge. He is the author of more than 25 books and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the African Academy of Sciences.