The World Economic Forum & McKinsey Publish "The Human Advantage"
The Dangers of Reducing Humans to Brain Capital and the Brain Economy.
In a publication from January 2026, the World Economic Forum in collaboration with the McKinsey Health Institute published The Human Advantage: Stronger Brains in the Age of AI.
I started The Human Advantage publication on Substack more than three years ago and I have been thinking about the human advantage for even longer. During this time, I was dreaming of this theme being picked up by more people.
But I never expected this…
In the Foreword of the publication of WEF & McKinsey, it says:
“In order to harness the full potential of both human and artificial intelligence, each enhancing the other, we must invest accordingly. By doing so, we will shape a smarter, healthier future. In this new report, The Human Advantage: Stronger Brains in the Age of AI, we build on a simple premise: stronger brains build stronger businesses, economies and societies.”
“Developed by the McKinsey Health Institute in collaboration with the World Economic Forum, this report lays out a roadmap for investing in our brains through five levers: safeguarding brain health; fostering brain skills; studying brain capital through better research and measurement; investing in brain capital with innovative finance; and mobilizing a coordinated, cross-sector movement.”
“Building brain capital is a shared endeavour. Everyone has a role to play. Educators and health leaders can lay the foundation for brain health and skills from childhood through to old age; CEOs can embed brain capital into talent and organizational culture; investors can channel capital towards brainpositive innovation.”
“The brain economy represents a new frontier where human intelligence and artificial intelligence work in partnership, allowing for greater productivity and resilience. If we commit to building the brain economy, we can create healthier lives and stronger institutions, with a goal of sustained, shared prosperity for generations ahead.”
The document goes at lengths to describe all the activities that need to be done. Among them is the focus on “brain health” and “brain skills”:
“Brain health is defined as a state of optimal brain functioning, supported by the promotion of healthy brain development and the prevention or treatment of mental, neurological and substance use disorders in people of all ages. But health alone is not enough.”
“Brain skills – the foundational cognitive, interpersonal, self-leadership and technological literacy abilities that enable people to adapt, relate and contribute meaningfully – are equally critical to societal progress. Together, these form what is called brain capital.”
“As brain capital gains traction globally, measurement should lead the way…The Brain Capital Dashboard (BCD) shows the “brain capital index” for more than 100 countries. Each country’s score is broken down into component metrics that enable users to assess strengths and vulnerabilities across domains.”
The Problems As I See Them
The brain is a body organ- an important organ but just one organ. In case you are wondering, being human is something utterly magic and divine that cannot be explained by any single body part- even when it is an important body part as the brain.
We have spent the last several decades discussing that calling people Human Resources, Human Assets, and even Human Capital is dehumanizing. How about Brain Capital then? I thought we have learnt something but I have been naive.
The document formulates as “brain skills” leadership, self-awareness, empathy, creativity, and curiosity, among others. Relating these skills only to the brain removes layers of understanding and deprives them of their essence.
To make things worse, self-awareness, motivation and empathy, among others, are classified as needed today but not needed in the future. I am not even going to explain how I feel reading this.
And much less important, yet still important, I am tired of hypocrisies. McKinsey started in 2012 a company called Aberkyn which is fully integrated now within their structure. They have been working with top leaders and their teams doing energy work, and talking about consciousness, spirituality and systems thinking since the beginning. To quote them, “From its earliest days, Aberkyn has offered courses that engage leaders in their full humanity, touching hearts as well as minds.” Full humanity- minds and hearts… Why does that get diminished now to brains?
in my article, When we fear AI, who are we really afraid of?, I described in detail The Human Advantage with all its different aspects:
Consciousness and self-awareness,
Creativity and imagination,
Emotions and feelings,
Flexibility and adaptability,
Intuition and judgment,
Moral reasoning and ethics,
Social interaction and communication,
Purpose and motivation,
Learning and development,
Physical capabilities and sensory experience.
None of these aspects of The Human Advantage can be attributed only to the functions of the brain. There is so much more to being human… And there is much more to be said but I will stop here and ask you:
How do you interpret this focus on the brain?
What else do you notice in the publication of the WEF and McKinsey?
What could be the consequences of all this on our future?
I will be writing more about this. I am just getting started. In the meantime, I look forward to reading your comments!
Thank you for writing this. Your reflection touched something very deep in me. I read the report slowly, several times and I noticed that I was not getting angry. I was getting quietly sad.
Not because the document is careless — it is clearly thoughtful and well-intentioned.
But because it reflects something I see more and more in my work and in life: when reality becomes too complex, uncertain or demanding, we start reducing ourselves in order to cope.
I understand the intention behind concepts like “brain capital”. There is a genuine concern for mental health, overload and human sustainability in an accelerating world. That matters.
And yet, I share your unease.
Much of what makes us human — self-awareness, empathy, motivation, creativity — does not live in cognition alone. It grows in relationships, in lived experience, in vulnerability, in meaning, in moral choice.
When these qualities are framed primarily as “skills” or “assets”, something essential gets flattened.
What worries me most is the silent shift of responsibility.
Instead of asking what kind of systems, cultures and economic logics we are creating, we increasingly focus on how to adapt human beings to them.
Instead of questioning speed, pressure, fragmentation and constant acceleration, we invest in making people more resilient, more flexible, more cognitively efficient.
Instead of redesigning environments that exhaust, we redesign nervous systems to endure.
Slowly, almost invisibly, the burden moves from structures to individuals.
From societies to brains.
And this feels deeply problematic.
Because it suggests that the problem is not how we live, work and organize — but how well people can tolerate it.
Perhaps, beneath all of this, there is something even deeper.
Maybe we are not only afraid of technological change.
Maybe we are afraid of ourselves.
Of our emotional depth.
Of our moral responsibility.
Of our vulnerability.
Of our capacity to feel, to question, to refuse, to change direction.
Reducing ourselves to “capital” may be a way to avoid facing the full complexity of being human.
Thank you for opening this conversation. It feels necessary — and courageous.
Thank you Natalia for attracting our attention and awareness to these lies. MacKinsey is not a friend of our humanity, they are the servants of the capitalists who trie to get the most from humanity. Yes, it is clear that economy was created by human beings but the love of power has corrupted the purpose of economy. It is interesting to notice that eco -nomy has the same prefix as eco-logy. And we know that, today economy is not at all at the service of ecology. This confusion between brain and economy is a way to blur the reality and to make us more submitted to those who have the power and the money.