Automation, algorithms and the need to adapt: How AI is reshaping the world of work
This episode of Euronews Real Economy, investigates what AI means for the world of work. Might it make those tricky tedious tasks easier, or is it actually coming for your job? And if you’re not in the firing line just yet, could you be working next to a bot sometime soon?
Right now, there’s a lot of talk globally about Artificial Intelligence. On Friday 8 December, member states and the European Parliament reached a preliminary deal on the AI Act, the world’s first attempt to regulate the fast-evolving technology in a comprehensive, ethics-based manner.
The EU’s move to legislate AI tech comes at a time of rapid change in the workplace. In a recent report, around 75% of the firms questioned said they planned to adopt AI-powered systems by 2027.
How is AI-powered tech revolutionising jobs in the Netherlands?
Dutch supermarket Picnic is attempting to revolutionise the online grocery sector. Highly automated centers, like Picnic’s in Utrecht, are full of lots of AI tech. The firm says that enables it to deliver food fresher, faster and cheaper – a clear edge in a highly competitive industry.
In addition, Picnic says its adoption of AI has created lots of skilled new jobs, for instance in fields like data analysis, while removing much of the hard graft done by workers in its distribution and fulfilment hubs.
Used well, AI potentially offers big benefits. But what happens when the tech ends up invading our every moment? Joseph Skull is a bicycle courier for a leading on-demand delivery service in Amsterdam. He says he’s fed up of constantly being monitored by the company whilst on shift.
“They track everything that we’re doing whilst we are at work,” he told Real Economy. “They can see if we stop somewhere for five minutes and they could ask questions about why are you taking so long when you’re just simply having to do things that you have to do whilst at work.”
Dutch unions agree, saying more should be done to reign in delivery firms, especially their use of AI algorithms in the bid to improve productivity.
Featurez organised filming and interviews at Picnic, with a bicycle courier and with a specialist from the Dutch Union FNV.