How AI is changing work

The issue lies with a pace and scale of change so rapid that it is difficult for organisations and regulators to keep up.

Associate Professor Penny Williams
Queensland University of Technology (QUT)

Associate Professor Penny Williams provides insights into the ways that AI is changing work and the pace with which these changes are entering the world of work.

From algorithms to AI

Generative AI (Gen AI), such as ChatGPT and Copilot, dominate both scholarly debates and public commentary about technology’s impact on work. However, there are many ways that AI and more broadly, algorithms, are being used every day in workplaces.

Some key changes over time help to illustrate the rapid pace of algorithmically-driven change to work in Australia:

  • 2012: Uber launched in Australia. Before Gen AI, algorithms were used by digital platforms like Uber and Menulog to mobilise, monitor and manage an independent freelancer workforce through an App redesigning work and disrupting business models and employment frameworks. Regulation of companies like Uber lagged behind and is only now catching up.
  • 2017: Amazon launched operations in Australia. Warehousing and logistics then adopted similar algorithmic management systems to increase efficiency, giving workers algorithmically determined task completion timeframes, which in the extreme, has led to automatic termination of employment contracts, and risks to worker safety.
  • 2020: During the COVID-19 pandemic, we saw a rapid rise in the use of algorithmic software to monitor remote workers and the increased use of AI in apps and desktop software programs to monitor and manage the productivity of all kinds of workers, including those based in offices and working from home.
  • 2020-2024: Australia experienced a rapid expansion in AI research. For example, AI related patents almost quadrupled from 170 in 2015, to 629 in 2024 with Chat GPT launching in November 2022. Policy and regulation are still catching up.
  • 2025: the commercial scaling of humanoid robots began in China, using AI to expand robotic capabilities into sectors, such as aged care where labour is scarce.

How are these developments changing work?

A recent survey by the European Commission shows that more than 90% of EU workers use some kind of digital device or tool (such as an app on their phone or monitoring software on their laptop) to do their job, and around 60% of workers are subjected to some form of digital monitoring, evaluation and direction. On average 30% of workers use GenAI in their job – usually in conjunction with whatever digital tool they are using. In some countries such as Denmark, Finland and the Netherlands, AI use is above 40%. Our research also suggests that just under 60% of Australian workers have monitoring or tracking software on laptops, phones or other devices (56.9%).

Who benefits?

For employers there are many benefits, including automation of manual administrative processes, dynamic distribution of work tasks, and the ability to track the location and productivity of workers regardless of their location, improving safety systems and creating organisational efficiencies. 

However, in our research we have found the surveillance embedded within many AI systems to gather the data on which automated decisions are made, makes many workers feel micromanaged and not trusted by their employer. The interaction with a system or an AI chatbot instead of a human can leave some workers feeling isolated from their peers and supervisor.

In our data, when AI systems were used to track the time spent on tasks, workers reported feeling pressured and perceived a reduction in work quality. Yet they also enjoyed the convenience that these systems offered, including the easy access to information and the reduction in previously manual processes such as time sheet or roster management. Workers described a trade-off between using the more efficient AI-enabled systems and the human experience of social interaction, privacy, and trust in the workplace.

Emerging global research suggests these issues can lead to increased psychosocial risks associated with work intensification, social isolation and stress.

The way forward

In addition to data gathering, tracking and monitoring at scale, developments in AI, Large Language Models (LLMs) and Machine Learning have meant that we can now replicate many human-like activities with chatbots, agents, avatars, and robots. GenAI is being used daily to summarise documents, write emails, policies, analyse data and compose content, while chatbots and AI Agents provide customer service, answer employee concerns, and even interview job candidates.

As outlined here, these changes bring both benefits and risks, including critical challenges to data security, corporate and individual privacy and data ownership, risk and responsibility, impacts on job quality, and obviously, the potential displacement of human work. Perhaps these AI-driven risks are not so new and, given prior experiences of technological change, arguably they could have been predicted.

The issue, however, lies with a pace and scale of change so rapid that it is difficult for organisations and regulators to keep up, as briefly illustrated at the start of the article. Rather than how is AI changing work, these rapid and continual developments, give rise to a different question: How is decent, human, work maintained?

This article is part of a suite of papers written following the symposium ‘Which Way Forward? AI and Decent Work’. Read more here.