Move Over Data Brain Capital is the New Oil

That was the headline in a 2021 article in the Psychiatric Times on the emergence of brain capital as a yet untapped asset that will be essential to the growth and even survival of economies and humans.

Brain capital has the potential to:

• Fuel a new era of humans, humans 2.0, in an era of AI.
• Drive economic growth.
• Help humans compete more effectively with AI.
• Unlock trillions of dollars in GDP.
• Reduce healthcare costs associated with aging brains.
• Even become a national security asset.

Various studies including from McKinsey, the World Economic Forum, and the Clinton Health Access Initiative suggest that a focus on brain capital could unlock trillions of dollars in untapped GPD gains over the next 25 years.

McKinsey estimates that proactive investment in employee health, including brain health, could lift global GDP by up to 12% and generate $11.7 trillion in economic value. That includes $3.1 trillion from less time lost to sickness and disability, and $1.7 trillion from higher engagement at work.

So What Is Brain Capital?

Brain capital is the combined value of brain health and brain skills. Harris Eyre, one of its leading proponents, calls it “human capital 2.0”: human capital in the age of neuroscience.

Brain health covers the functioning of the brain over its lifetime. According to the World Health Organization that not only means addressing neurological, psychiatric, and neurodevelopmental disorders, but also focusing on mental wellbeing, dementia, depression, anxiety, stroke, developmental conditions, and the everyday cognitive and emotional wellness of healthy people.

On the other side, brain skills are the capabilities a healthy brain can develop and use to remain healthy and competitive, and include things like adaptability, empathy, complex problem-solving, emotional resilience, creativity, and learning.

Brain skills also include both cognitive abilities such as memory, analysis, and attention, and non-cognitive ones such as collaboration, emotional regulation, and social judgement.

Brain Capital vs AI

Brain capital has also be positioned as an AI Counterweight. As AI automates routine digital tasks, human-centric competencies have the potential to become the critical competitive edge for workers, organizations, and nations.

According to the World Economic Forum, as value shifts toward ideas, algorithms, and learning capacity advantages rooted in physical assets and low-cost labour are diminishing.

If machines take on more routine analysis, what remains scarce is judgement, creativity, empathy, and the ability to keep learning. Those depend on healthy, well-developed brains. McKinsey researchers put the point this way: nothing yet replicates the brain’s capacity to contribute to society.

For we humans, the benefits go beyond the economy. Better brain health means fewer years lost to illness and disability, more years of independence in later life, stronger mental wellbeing, and greater ability to learn and adapt at any age.

Hacking Stress and Brain Capital

The skills highlighted and encouraged as part of hacking stress can help with both brain health and brain skills. By managing stress, and especially the toxicity of cortisol triggered by chronic stress, the brain can become healthier.

Managing stress can also help reduce the risks of cognitive decline like Alzheimer’s and dementia, and improve things like happiness, social connections, and relationships.

Hacking stress can also improve brain skills by encouraging humans to think more about their thinking, be more open minded, curious, analytical, and empathetic, and tap into things like kindness, gratitude, and purpose – all of which contribute to both brain skills and brain health.

So it appears that something as obvious as stress management could play a key role in not only keeping humans healthier for longer, but also in keep humans and workplaces more competitive and productive.