Prior to the World War 2, the future of automation was more luxury time for the working class. They could do the same job in less time and had very strong unions that were gaining trajectory in the great depression.
However, during the war, people were willing to work more and make sacrifices to kick the Axis' face in (which is a rare and accidental example of the US being on the correct side of a conflict). The business owners realized that war managed to jumpstart business to levels never seen before, and pushed for forever wars as an economic stimulant; but I digress.
The point is, the idea of automation was supposed to be by and for workers to increase luxury time, to get paid more for the same amount of work.
However, capitalism co-opted that. In the neoliberal era in particular they used automation and globalization to push up mean productivity and diminish the power of the working class. Automation has stopped becoming a way to bolster a worker's performance, make jobs easier, and minimize drudge work; and started becoming a free floating threat.
With last year having spooked the capitalist class (2023 was "the year of the strike" according to media), they are charging head long and blindfolded into an AI generated future in order to use AI and machinery to automate work entirely and make work obsolete.
Just like with the digital only future tech companies charged blindly in to out of fear of used products being resold as competition, they aren't concerned with the long term consequences. To the executive, a human worker and an AI are no different (you give a prompt, they give a result; you don't like it you give a more specific prompt).
Theoretically, in a world that didn't suck, AI would be used to make life easier for society, to handle trivial tasks in order to enable people to live happy, fulfilling lives. However with capitalists at the helm that is almost certainly not to be (capitalism relies on "survival of the richest" and a self-selecting hierarchy based on wealth, this means scarcity and being distinct from "the common man" is effectively proof of status; and those in power would NEVER give that up or share it with anyone not a part of the neo-nobility).
I do believe AI can be used for good, but I don't believe that outcome will ever truly be realized so long as we live in late stage neoliberal capitalism.