The End of Ownership: When AI Makes Possessions Obsolete by 2040

By Futurist Thomas Frey

By 2040, you’ll stop owning most of your stuff. Not because you can’t afford it—because owning things will make no sense.

This isn’t about subscription services or sharing economy 2.0. This is something more fundamental: the convergence of personalization, robotics, and micro-manufacturing making on-demand production so efficient that ownership becomes economically irrational and logistically unnecessary.

Your AI won’t help you shop. It’ll simply have things made and delivered when you need them, then recycled when you’re done. Possessions become temporary—summoned when useful, disappeared when not.

How This Actually Works

The technology enabling this is deceptively straightforward: networked micro-factories in every neighborhood using robotics and AI to manufacture products on demand from recycled materials.

Need a winter coat? Your AI knows temperatures are dropping, knows your size and style preferences, and knows you don’t currently own appropriate outerwear. It sends specifications to a local micro-factory. Robotic systems fabricate the coat from recycled textiles overnight. A delivery drone drops it at your door the next morning. You wear it all winter. When spring arrives, the coat gets picked up, broken down into constituent materials, and those materials become someone else’s rain jacket.

You never decided to buy a coat. You never shopped for it. You never thought about storage. It appeared when useful and vanished when not. Total cost: maybe $15, automatically deducted from your account. Less than buying coffee.

The same pattern applies to tools, furniture, electronics, kitchen equipment, sports gear, seasonal items—anything where ownership is really just temporarily exclusive access.

Why Ownership Stops Making Sense

Several converging factors make temporary possession superior to permanent ownership:

Storage costs exceed usage value. Most possessions sit idle 95%+ of the time. That camping equipment you use twice a year? The specialized kitchen gadget you need quarterly? The formal clothes for rare occasions? You’re paying for storage space—in home square footage or rental units—for items generating value only occasionally.

By 2040, having things manufactured on demand and recycled after use costs less than the physical space to store them. The economic calculation reverses completely.

Maintenance becomes unnecessary. When you receive items freshly manufactured, they’re in perfect condition. When they show wear, they get recycled and you receive new versions. You never repair anything, never deal with degradation, never throw away broken possessions.

Upgrading happens automatically. Technology and design improve constantly. Items you own become obsolete. Items manufactured on demand incorporate latest improvements automatically—you always get current versions rather than aging possessions from years past.

Personalization reaches perfect precision. Micro-factories don’t just make generic sizes—they make items to your exact specifications. Clothes fitted to your body measurements. Furniture sized for your rooms. Tools optimized for your grip and strength. Everything customized without custom pricing.

Environmental benefits align with economics. Ownership requires virgin materials. On-demand systems use recycled materials in closed loops. The most sustainable option becomes the cheapest option, eliminating the usual trade-off between environmental responsibility and economic rationality.

What You Stop Owning

Clothing beyond essentials: Seasonal items, formal wear, specialized athletic gear—anything you don’t wear constantly gets manufactured as needed and recycled after use. Your closet shrinks to daily basics while your effective wardrobe expands infinitely.

Tools and equipment: Power drills, lawn equipment, specialized kitchen appliances—anything used occasionally appears when needed and disappears after. You have access to every tool without owning any.

Furniture for temporary needs: Hosting guests? Extra chairs and tables appear. Guests leave? Furniture disappears. Moving? Furniture at your old place gets recycled while new pieces optimized for your new space get delivered.

Electronics beyond daily-use devices: Cameras for vacations, projectors for presentations, gaming equipment for specific titles—specialized electronics become on-demand rather than owned possessions.

Seasonal items: Winter coats, summer gear, holiday decorations—anything used only part of the year cycles through rather than sitting in storage.

Children’s items: As kids grow, clothing, toys, furniture, and equipment needs change constantly. On-demand systems adapt seamlessly—items appropriate for current age and size appear, outgrown items disappear.

What You Still Own

Some possessions remain owned because emotional attachment, constant use, or personalization requirements make ownership superior:

Sentimental items: Family heirlooms, photos, gifts—anything with emotional rather than functional value stays owned.

Daily essentials: Items used constantly—phones, everyday clothing, personal care items—remain owned because manufacturing delays don’t justify the minimal storage cost.

Highly personalized items: Things that develop character through use—musical instruments, art supplies, well-worn books—stay owned because their value includes use history.

Identity markers: Items expressing personal identity or aesthetics—jewelry, art, collectibles—remain owned because they’re about self-expression, not function.

The Psychological Shift

This transformation requires rethinking what possessions mean. For generations, ownership signaled stability, success, and identity. Letting go feels uncomfortable initially.

But younger generations already demonstrate attachment to experiences rather than things. By 2040, Gen Alpha and beyond will find permanent ownership of functional objects as strange as we find storing horses in urban garages—a relic of an era before better alternatives existed.

The shift isn’t about having less—it’s about having exactly what you need when you need it without the burden of managing possessions you don’t.

The Timeline

2025-2030: Early micro-factories launch in wealthy urban areas. Limited item categories—mostly clothing and basic tools. Early adopters experiment while most people continue traditional ownership.

2030-2035: Technology matures and costs drop. Micro-factories proliferate. Item categories expand dramatically. Ownership of non-essential possessions begins declining measurably in tech-forward cities.

2035-2040: On-demand becomes economically superior to ownership for most functional items. Storage costs, convenience, and environmental benefits make ownership the exception rather than rule.

Final Thoughts

By 2040, the question won’t be “Should I buy this?” It’ll be “Do I need to own this, or should I just have it made when I need it?”

For most possessions, the answer will be the latter. Ownership becomes temporary—items cycling through your life based on need rather than accumulating permanently.

Your grandchildren will ask why you owned so much stuff. And you’ll struggle to explain that once, having things manufactured on demand seemed futuristic rather than obvious.

https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/09/23/micro-manufacturing-on-demand/

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-024-01345-0