AI & the Future of Work Research

How the U.S. Public and AI Experts View Artificial Intelligence.
April 3, 2025

The public and experts are far apart in their enthusiasm and predictions for AI. But they share similar views in wanting more personal control and worrying regulation will fall short

By Colleen McClain, Brian Kennedy, Jeffrey Gottfried, Monica Andersonand Giancarlo Pasquini

Choosing AI’s Impact on the Future of Work

Oct. 25, 2023

Rapid advances in AI threaten to eliminate many jobs, but there are still two distinct paths this AI revolution could take.

By Daron Acemoglu & Simon Johnson 

Embracing Gen AI at Work

September-October 2024

by H. James Wilson and Paul R. Daugherty

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Today artificial intelligence can be harnessed by nearly anyone, using commands in everyday language instead of code. Soon it will transform more than 40% of all work activity, according to the authors’ research. In this new era of collaboration between humans and machines, the ability to leverage AI effectively will be critical to your professional success. This article describes the three kinds of “fusion skills” you need to get the best results from gen AI. Intelligent interrogation involves instructing large language models to perform in ways that generate better outcomes—by, say, breaking processes down into steps or visualizing multiple potential paths to a solution. Judgment integration is about incorporating expert and ethical human discernment to make AI’s output more trustworthy, reliable, and accurate. It entails augmenting a model’s training sources with authoritative knowledge bases when necessary, keeping biases out of prompts, ensuring the privacy of any data used by the models, and scrutinizing suspect output. With reciprocal apprenticing, you tailor gen AI to your company’s specific business context by including rich organizational data and know-how into the commands you give it. As you become better at doing that, you yourself learn how to train the AI to tackle more-sophisticated challenges. The AI revolution is already here. Learning these three skills will prepare you to thrive in it.

Artificial intelligence and the future of work: humans in control

March 13, 2024

By Ekkehard Ernst, Janine Berg, Phoebe V Moore 

Latest developments around artificial intelligence (AI) have triggered excitement about the potential to replace and complement human activities while also raising concerns about possible risks to society. Dramatic effects are specifically being felt in the world of work, including jobs, wages and working conditions but also recruitment, performance monitoring, and dismissal. So far, research in this area has focused predominantly on the potential of AI for job gains and losses. Other aspects of its transformative dynamics have received less attention, however. In particular, the impact of AI on job quality, average hours worked, mobility, or labor relations between employers and workers are often overlooked. Moreover, society-wide effects triggered by AI, including its rising environmental burden, need to be reassessed. To address these issues, this Research Topic includes nine exciting contributions that shed light on a broader range of issues that AI technologies might bring to the world of work.