I’m probably too optimistic as a default, but I think it might be okay. Agriculture used to require far more people than it does now due to automation, and it certainly seems like many industries will be able to be partially automated with only incremental change to current technology. If less people are needed for social maintenance, then more will be able to focus on the sciences, so yes we may have less people but it’s quite possible we’ll have a lot more in science.

I don’t think AI needs to be conscious to be useful.