Future of Work Working Group Report

In the GPAI Future of Work Working Group (FoW), 27 experts with multiple backgrounds and expertise from 15countries collaborate to support a collective understanding of the impact of AI on work and to build a collective intelligence on this issue. The group has decided to develop its contribution in two directions: one focusing on existing real cases and the second turned toward the future vision. The FoW investigates how the deployment of AI can affect workers and working environments, how job quality, inclusiveness, health and safety in the workplace can be preserved, and how workers and employers can prepare and better design the future of work.

As a major activity of the first 5 months, the FoW has gathered and analysed use cases of AI applications at the company level. For this empirical work, the experts have developed a questionnaire to query the general characteristics of AI use cases together with their underlying motivations and objectives, the participation of workers and representatives in the design and development of AI systems, the role of Human-Machine Interfaces, the ethical aspects involved and the impact on employment, work conditions and organization.

‍
From an initial overview of 53 use cases, the group has observed in an exploratory manner some trends that can be summarised as follows:

• AI applications can help organizations to produce new knowledge based on data.

• Certain AI applications can contribute to the employees’ wellbeing and decent working conditions.

• Effective collaboration between AI and humans is essential for success. This refers to AI supporting human work rather than replacing it and to AI requiring human developers, trainers and supervisors.

• AI uses in the industry require more dialogue with the social partners1 and a greater awareness and understanding of ethical aspects.

• AI can take on certain human work tasks and, therefore, will have an impact on employment, recruitment, and the skills required for future jobs.