AI Should Give Rise to an Ownership Economy

To achieve the American Dream, it is no longer enough to work from nine to five. For too many years, wealth has primarily accumulated in assets, rather than in wages.

Now, AI is transforming how our economy operates, and a wide range of voices are unifying around a shared goal: expanding worker equity ownership.

The ownership economy has the potential to expand the ability of every citizen to own financial capital, to benefit from an upside once reserved for the rich, and to help to experience the American Dream.

I am optimistic that with the right policies and momentum, an ownership economy can become the foundation of a new social contract between business and society—where corporate profit and economic participation reinforce one another, grounded in the principles of Inclusive Capitalism: fairness, equity, and opportunity. Many investors, politicians, and business leaders—including big tech CEOs—increasingly recognize that as AI reshapes work and productivity, the wealth it creates must be shared broadly across society.

In his encyclical “Magnifica Humanitas” titled Encyclical on Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence, Pope Leo XIV calls on us to create an economy that values dignity, and that “instead of waiting for the benefits of growth to reach the poor, ‘eventually,’ decisions need to be taken now to ensure that growth becomes inclusive from the outset.”

Pope Leo is far from alone in this view. Worlds away, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink similarly argued in his 2026 letter to investors that with AI driving growth in capital markets, ownership, too, must broaden.

From historic programs like the federally-sponsored employee stock ownership plans (known as “ESOPs”) to new policies like Trump Accounts, an ownership economy is already part of our national mindset, but access must be expanded and made much easier to understand and implement. Here are three ideas toward that end:

Worker capital and retraining credits from AI investment funds

Business leaders closest to technological change are proposing new ways to share their economic gains with workers—whether through direct participation in market returns, or workforce development spending. OpenAI’s proposal for a wealth fund, seeded through AI productivity gains and invested in technology companies, or even Elon Musk’s push for universal wealth, are premised on the idea that AI-driven abundance can offer capital-based alternatives to universal basic income. California Governor Gavin Newsom recently directed state agencies to study such capital mechanisms for their potential to protect workers amid loss of income and jobs to AI.

These ideas directly confront the risks of labor market dislocation and rising inequality but leave unanswered questions about how to create meaningful work and purpose. As Pope Leo XIV reminds us, “It is essential to invest in accessible education and retraining, so that the professional mobility demanded by the digital economy does not become a harsh selection between those who are able to update their skills and those who cannot.”

This gap is being addressed by some industry solutions. Verizon has established a Transition Fund for employees displaced by AI, which CEO Dan Schulman hopes will be adopted by other companies, and even evolve into sector-based transition funds supported by multiple companies. In Korea, Samsung averted a worker strike by agreeing to a profit-sharing agreement which will award employees 10.5% of operating profits from its AI chip business—a bold move investors rewarded with an 8% jump in the company’s stock price.

Public investment funds for the AI transition

Policymakers and economists are exploring national vehicles designed to help workers share in the gains of technological change. Senator Mark Kelly has proposed a Federal trust fund as part of his AI for America framework, which would spend a portion of AI-driven profits on worker training, career support, and long-term economic investment. Economist and Nobel Laureate Simon Johnson has proposed a dividend model in which an innovation dividend from returns on technology investment would be distributed more directly to workers and communities affected by its disruptions. Both proposals reflect the recognition that the AI transition will require new public investment frameworks to better link technological change, wealth creation, and economic participation.

From stakeholders to stockholders

To fully realize the potential of the ownership economy, we must expand employee ownership across all sizes of U.S. companies. This is crucial because it creates wealth-building opportunities for working families and also strengthens employee agency and business resilience.

To accomplish this, organizations such as the Clinton Policy Institute are exploring new ways of financing employee buyouts of privately held companies, many of which face a succession challenge as their founders and long-time owners retire. On the other hand, larger companies, especially publicly traded ones, offer other forms of profit sharing through broad-based equity. For instance, investment firms like KKR are scaling the wealth-building potential of employee ownership across portfolio companies alongside Ownership Works, a nonprofit that supports investors to enable broad-based ownership and cultivate ownership culture at the company level.

The key is that workers across sectors and firms are able to benefit from the ownership economy.

The business case for employee ownership

To be sure, leading companies are showing how ownership benefits everyone, from hourly workers to customers and shareholders. In one of the economy’s most disrupted sectors, several of the most successful supermarket chains—including Publix, WinCo, and Houchens Industries—are employee-owned, demonstrating unique resilience in the face of supply chain shocks, inflationary pressure and technological change. Last year, Walmart, the country’s largest grocery retailer and employer, introduced stock grants for store managers, boosting the compensation of retail employees who will be on the frontlines of Walmart’s AI deployment strategy, and the human-AI interactions which will define the future of success.

This model is spreading across sectors as well. In 2024, Bank of America used equity awards to complement its efforts to improve compensation for approximately 97% of its workforce.

Investment makes the difference

Policy is trying to keep pace, but more needs to be done. The Biden Administration launched the Division of Employee Ownership within the Department of Labor with more than $50 million. President Trump has continued to support the Division’s mission and called for spurring greater growth of ESOPs.

Yet, so far, bipartisan support has not unlocked the institutional capital needed to expand the ownership economy. While new policy incentives and financing mechanisms are awaited, investors should not stay on the sidelines.

I am encouraged by how some investors are pressing ahead by tapping into promising opportunities in collaboration with State governments. States are emerging as laboratories for scaling ownership models, alongside institutional investors such as public pension funds as well as philanthropic capital. From this ongoing work, new financing pathways for broad-based ownership are taking shape among policymakers, investors, and companies, offering an early blueprint for the ownership economy where more workers participate in the wealth they help create.