1、17/1 0/2024INDEPENDEN T P U B L I C AT I O N BY#0921R AC O N T EU R.NE TAI FOR BUSINESSFINANCE CHIEFS TOP TIPS FOR INVESTING IN AIHOW TO AVOID PILOT-PROJECT PURGATORY1405WILL AI UPSET EMPLOYEES WORK/LIFE BALANCE?18R A C O N T E U R.N E TA I F O R B U S I N E S S0302heres a common belief that AI will

2、 free workers from monotonous or low-level tasks,opening up time for more stimulating work.But research sug-gests this may not be the case.Milena Nikolova,a professor in the economics of wellbeing at the Uni-versity of Groningen,has looked at data on thousands of workers across 20 European countries

3、 over two decades.She found that automation in industrial workplaces actually increased repetitive and monoto-nous tasks for humans.Human work became more routine,not less.Nikolovas research found that robotisation made work more intense,focusing on a dwindling set of tasks that machines could not e

4、asily accomplish.These tasks were also less interesting,with fewer opportunities for cognitively chal-lenging work and human contact.Workers also became more reliant on a machines pace of work and had a more limited understanding of the full production process.The overall result was a decline in mea

5、ningful work and autonomy.Think of a warehouse operator in a semi-automated depot:the worker still needs to be present while the robot functions.The employee depends on the machines output and activities,while the human work is more routine-intensive,less challenging and less interactive.Theres no t

6、ime for better work.This research focused on low-skilled work,but we know now that AI is also taking over more cogni-tively challenging and creative tasks that only humans could previ-ously perform,whether it be cus-tomer service or content creation.“Im not worried that people wont have stuff to do.