Worker Agency

Definition

Worker Agency examines worker agency within the broader domain of changes in roles, teams, skills, agency and workforce planning under automation and AI agents.

Why this matters

Worker Agency can materially affect human agency, capability, belonging, livelihoods, culture, trust, resilience and long-term societal outcomes.

Research questions

Under which conditions does worker agency improve human and system outcomes, how do effects vary across populations and contexts, and what safeguards prevent dependency, exclusion, distortion or loss of agency?

Hypotheses

A transparent, participatory and human-directed approach to worker agency, with explicit safeguards and longitudinal evaluation, will improve job quality; displacement; creation; productivity; worker agency; transition success; capability breadth compared with opaque, automation-first or short-term approaches.

Proposed methods

task decomposition; workforce simulation; longitudinal labour analysis; organisational trials; worker interviews; skills assessment; literature and policy review; expert and affected-user interviews; reproducibility testing; methods adapted specifically to Worker Agency

Stakeholders and beneficiaries

governments; communities; employers; workers; unions; educators; infrastructure operators; emergency services; civil society; researchers; investors; technology providers