Source: The Guardian

Artificial intelligence’s most urgent threat to work is the widening gap between employees who use AI to extend their skills and those whose work lives are governed by opaque, AI-driven surveillance and management systems. Scheduling, route optimisation, automated dashboards and “bossware” decide shifts, expected task times and performance metrics, turning AI into a system that watches and rules rather than a tool that assists. This divide is evident across countries mentioned in the piece, including Britain, Kenya and the United States, and is already visible in sectors such as warehousing, delivery, gig work, retail, hospitality, logistics and customer service.

The article notes examples of major companies where surveillance pressures are reported, and cites that about a third of UK employers reportedly use bossware technology. Nazrul Islam, identified as a chair professor of business and co-director of the Centre of FinTech at the University of East London’s Royal Docks School of Business and Law, says his research over the past decade — which was cited in the 2024 White House economic report — highlights the core issue as widening inequality in skills, autonomy and wellbeing rather than immediate mass unemployment. The piece argues for meaningful worker training, transparent and contestable systems affecting pay and performance, and worker involvement in AI deployment to prevent entrenched imbalance and rising stress from continuous measurement.