What if taxing AI-driven automation could fund a universal basic income? Our interactive simulator lets you set the policy parameters and see the numbers play out — revenue collected, monthly payments per citizen, and how it evolves year on year.
As AI adoption accelerates, so does a pressing question: who benefits? Automation drives productivity and profit — but the gains accrue disproportionately to capital, while labour markets absorb the disruption. One policy response gaining serious traction is an AI tax: a levy on companies with high automation levels, with the proceeds distributed as a Universal Basic Income (UBI) to citizens. Our interactive simulator lets you model exactly how that could work — and what the numbers look like under different policy assumptions.
The Policy Question Behind the Demo
The idea is straightforward in principle: companies that replace human labour with AI generate revenue without proportionally contributing to the social systems that labour taxes historically funded. An AI tax attempts to rebalance that — taxing automated revenue and redistributing it as a floor income for all citizens, regardless of employment status.
What makes this genuinely complex is the calibration. How high should the tax rate be? At what automation threshold does it kick in? Should it scale progressively with automation levels? And how does the picture change as AI adoption grows year on year? These are not rhetorical questions — they are the actual design decisions any government would face in drafting such a policy. The simulator makes them tangible.
What the Demo Does
The simulator models a 2026 scenario with a set of companies at varying levels of AI adoption. You control four policy levers:
- Base AI tax rate — the percentage applied to revenue of companies above the automation threshold
- Automation threshold — the minimum automation level that triggers the tax obligation
- Progressive tax multiplier — how much the tax burden scales up for companies with higher automation levels
- Population size — the number of citizens among whom the collected tax is distributed as monthly UBI payments
As you move the sliders, the dashboard updates in real time: total tax revenue collected, monthly UBI payment per citizen, number of citizens covered, and the average automation level across companies. A flow diagram shows the money moving from companies through the tax fund to citizens, and you can inspect each company's revenue, automation percentage, and resulting tax obligation individually.
Hit Simulate Next Year to advance the timeline. Company AI adoption levels shift, revenue evolves, and the population grows slightly — letting you see how the system develops over time and whether the UBI payment grows or shrinks as automation spreads.
Who It Is For
Policymakers and government advisors exploring social safety net reform in the context of automation will find the simulator a useful tool for stress-testing assumptions and communicating tradeoffs to non-technical stakeholders.
Economists and researchers working on automation, labour markets, or redistributive taxation can use it to quickly illustrate how different design choices interact — and where the sensitive variables are.
Technology policy advocates and NGOs making the case for AI regulation or UBI funding mechanisms can use the demo to ground abstract policy proposals in concrete, legible numbers.
Educators and students in economics, public policy, or technology ethics will find it an accessible entry point into the fiscal mechanics of automation taxation.
How to Use the Demo
- Open the simulator. The demo loads directly — no gate or login required.
- Adjust the policy sliders. Start with the default settings and observe the baseline: what tax revenue is collected, and what monthly payment that translates to per citizen.
- Explore the company breakdown. Scroll through the list of sample companies to see which are above the automation threshold, how much tax they owe, and how the progressive multiplier affects higher-automation players.
- Read the flow diagram. The visualisation shows the full redistribution chain — from corporate tax obligations, through the collected fund, to individual monthly payments.
- Simulate year-on-year evolution. Click Simulate Next Year repeatedly to watch how the system shifts as AI adoption grows — and whether the UBI becomes more or less sustainable over time under your chosen parameters.
See it in action
Set the policy parameters. See what a UBI could look like.
Adjust tax rates, automation thresholds, and population size — and watch the revenue and monthly payments update in real time.
Explore the AI Tax → UBI Simulator →Interested in exploring AI policy, automation economics, or future-of-work strategy? Reach out at info@regenstudio.world.