If AI automates work, how will Nepal fund the state?

A national AI strategy that treats employment, tax and remittance dependence as central is the only way to leverage AI without hollowing out the state’s ability to function.

Nepal’s National AI Policy (2025) promises higher productivity, better public services and a workforce ready for the Artificial Intelligence (AI) economy. These are reasonable, even necessary goals for a developing country like ours. But the policy is largely silent on socio-economic questions such as what happens to employment, the tax base and the state’s ability to fund itself when machines begin to replace workers at scale.