Workstream 3 - Individuals
Research in this workstream has focused on the impacts of AI and automation on individual workers, drawing on a survey of 5000 UK employees.
Briefing paper exploring how exposure to new technologies interacts with the quality of people’s jobs, based on a survey of 5000 UK employees.
This working paper explores how different types of technology – digital ICTs, wearables, AI software, and robotics – influence job quality among UK employees. 5,000 employees were surveyed to analyse correlations between technology exposure and job characteristics like salary, career prospects, and work environment.
This major study led by Dr Magdalena Soffia and Professor Jolene Skordis explores in a pioneering way how exposure to technologies interacts with workers’ quality of life and wellbeing.
This new report explores in a pioneering way how exposure to technologies interacts with workers’ quality of life and wellbeing. The Briefing Paper summarises the findings of the full Working Paper above.
Reframing Skills: Sen’s Capability Approach in an age of automation
With automation and AI we are living through the greatest technological transition since industrialisation, precipitating major transformations of the nature of work that have profound implications for education and skills.
In the first of our ‘Explainers’, we outline why a novel application of Sen’s Capability Approach offers a new perspective, providing a comprehensive, organising framework to promote human flourishing centred on individual agency.
Automation technologies are reshaping work, which has complex impacts on the wellbeing of workers. This paper by Bertha Rohenkohl and Jonathan Clarke reviews the literature on the impact of automation technologies on subjective wellbeing.
It explores automation risk, expectations of automation and technology adoption, analysing their effects on job and life satisfaction. While negative consequences of automation are commonly studied, our review uncovers potential for both positive and negative effects on wellbeing.
The United Kingdom’s labour market currently faces multiple challenges including low productivity, unfilled job posts, low workforce engagement, and deteriorating mental health in the working-age population.
This paper by Magdalena Soffia, Matthew Hall and Jolene Skordis explores how the Capability Approach—a framework assessing progress based on individuals’ opportunities to lead fulfilling lives— may offer insight into the causes of these challenges.