Give staff more say over AI to ensure they share benefits, UK thinktank urges

Workers urgently need more bargaining power over the way AI is adopted in the workplace to ensure the benefits are fairly shared, according to a TUC-backed report from a leading thinktank. The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) is calling for a package of measures to boost employees’ influence at what it calls a “pivotal moment in the history of work”. Its report cites survey data showing that while 20% of workers say AI is making their working life better, 21% say it has made it worse – and 4% believe they have already lost a job because of the technology. The IPPR distinguishes between three potential impacts of the technology: augmentation, where it complements human labour; degradation, where it undermines the experience of work, for example, by being used to monitor and manage workers; and displacement, where it replaces workers altogether. “The question is not whether AI will disrupt working life, but who will have the power to shape that disruption – and whose interests it will ultimately serve,” the report’s authors argue. Their recommendations include a statutory duty on employers to consult their workers over the adoption of AI and a “worker support levy”, which could be funded by companies or workers. The idea of this levy would be to create a portable “wallet” of benefits that workers could take with them from one job to another – such as union membership, insurance or training – with the broad aim of increasing their bargaining power. …