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The Future of Work

Cohort 4

How we work.

How should people shape the role that AI plays in the future of work? Generative and agentic AI are rapidly changing workplaces and professional practice. Most discussion focuses on automation and productivity. This challenge instead asks how workers themselves can influence how AI is designed, introduced and governed.

This challenge explores how AI can support better work, rather than simply more efficient work.

Indicative potential partners

Illustrative research directions

  • Human-AI collaboration
  • Worker agency and autonomy
  • Algorithmic management
  • Workplace wellbeing
  • AI and professional identity
  • Future skills and lifelong learning
  • AI and organisational change
  • Contestability of AI-supported workplace decisions

Indicative reading

  • Ahn, E., Choi, M., Fowler, P. and Song, I.H., 2025. Artificial intelligence (AI) literacy for social work: Implications for core competencies. Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research, 16(1), pp.9-26. https://doi.org/10.1086/735187

  • Kobiella, C., Mitrevska, T., Schmidt, A., & Draxler, F. (2025, June). When efficiency meets fulfillment: understanding long-term LLM integration in knowledge work. In Proceedings of the 4th Annual Symposium on Human-Computer Interaction for Work (pp. 1-15). https://doi.org/10.1145/3729176.3729180

  • Kobiella, C., Schneider, L., Schmidt, A., & Terzimehić, N. (2026, April). Co-Constructed or Constrained? How AI Collaboration Tools Reshape UI Design Practice in a Time-Boxed Design Challenge. In Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-27). https://doi.org/10.1145/3772318.3790758

  • Huber, L., 2026. Worker-Led AI: Three Case Studies of Design and Worker Power. Interactions, 33(4), pp.52-55. https://doi.org/10.1145/3816445

  • Ma, S., Zimmerman, J., Nisi, V. and Nunes, N.J., 2026, April. Revisiting Worker-Centered Design: Tensions, Blind Spots, and Action Spaces. In Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-19). https://doi.org/10.1145/3772318.3791128

Organisations