The rise of AI is making the future of work look bleak – but it could be an opportunity
In 2026, it’s a scary time to work for a living,Gone are the days of quiet quitting, the Great Resignation, and the highly visible union-organizing battles that began the decade and signaled that perhaps worker power was on the rise again in the US,Instead, much of that momentum is being crowded out of our minds by anxieties: a worsening affordability crisis, geopolitical instability, and the specter of artificial intelligence looming over the workplace,For the tech CEOs leading the AI race and enriching themselves as they jostle for dominance, AI isn’t a phantasm at all, but a glimmering unicorn,When they predict AI is just months away from being able to do everything a software engineer does, or that it will one day take over CEOs’ jobs, their excitement for the future is palpable.
For the rest of us, it’s hard to feel confident in their offhand remarks about how “some jobs will be obsolete, but many jobs will be created”.A 2025 Pew survey found that “64% of the public thinks AI will lead to fewer jobs over the next 20 years”, which is probably why only 17% of Americans say AI will have a positive effect on the US over the same time period.Uncertain times like these call for scrutiny.Throughout 2026, the Guardian will publish Reworked, a reporting series that centers the human stakes as AI disrupts our workplaces, in ways both thrilling and alarming.Like this essay, the stories in this series will focus on workers’ real-world power and plights as well as the realities and exaggerations of the hype surrounding AI’s transformative possibilities.
So which version of the future of work awaits us? It is yet to be settled, which means there is still time to shift course.Blue-collar workers who have long grappled with algorithmic surveillance and optimization at work are now worrying that technological advancements will only make their jobs more dehumanizing.“[For] lower wage workers, there is concern about being replaced by robots.But on the other hand, there’s a lot of concern about being turned into robots,” Lisa Kresge, a senior researcher at the UC Berkeley Labor Center, told me.And white-collar workers are now wondering if their work will begin to resemble blue-collar labor – either because they will be similarly tracked and managed, or because they will need to switch to more manual work that’s resistant to being taken over by AI.
It may seem that workers haven’t been this vulnerable in a long time,In some ways, that’s true,But this is also a pivotal moment, one in which something unexpected is happening: society’s collective anxiety over AI is catalyzing workers to push back,“It is creating an opportunity,” Sarita Gupta, the Ford Foundation’s Vice President of US Programs and co-author of The Future We Need: Organizing for a Better Democracy in the Twenty-First Century, told me,“When you have a young Silicon Valley software engineer realize that their performance is tracked or undermined by the same logic as a working class warehouse picker, class divisions dissolve, and larger working-class movements for dignity are possible.
That is what we’re starting to see,”People across industries and income brackets are anxious and frustrated, quite like they were when the Covid pandemic placed punishing demands on frontline workers and erased the boundaries between work and life for everyone else,Those struggles prompted power shifts: At the same time that workers led unionization efforts at Amazon warehouses and Starbucks locations around the US, the Great Resignation saw a record number of employees quit their jobs, and the ones who remained in the workforce began negotiating for and gaining better pay and conditions,“It was not a pretty time for a lot of workers,And so part of the resurgence of labor organizing from that period of time was in response to a lot of fears,” Kresge said.
She also sees the rise of AI as an opening for the labor movement to regain some of the power it’s lost after decades of attacks from employers.“I’m hopeful about the opportunity for technology to lift up some of the issues that have been under way in our economy for decades … in terms of how workers are treated and how we are distributing the rewards of productivity.”Conditions for workers have been rough for a long while now.“Over time, unions have lost collective bargaining power, and a lot of that is due to the lack of laws that we need and enforcement of laws,” Gupta said.“For four decades, productivity soared while wages stayed flat, and unionization hit historic lows.
” In 2025, only 9.9% of US workers were union members – the same percentage as 2024, but still the lowest numbers in almost 40 years.Today, the advent of AI is drawing the world’s attention to the extreme imbalance of power between employers and their employees – and people are getting worked up.Even if the outcomes are still undetermined, that’s a glimmer of possibility in bleak times.AI is still a nascent technology.
Many of the predictions about what it will be capable of and how it will transform labor and the economy are just that – predictions.The question of worker power in the age of AI hasn’t been decided yet, even if billionaire CEOs with a vested interest in the unregulated dominance of AI keep implying that it has.“There is a concerted effort among many tech leaders to basically create mystification around AI as a tactic, to a large extent, to disempower workers, policymakers, and anyone who might be critical of the growing concentration of funding and resources in our society toward this goal,” Kresge told me.In other words, take what these billionaires say with a grain of salt.The rise of AI is already transforming society, the economy, and our relationship to work, but a lot of these shifts are anticipatory, based on our belief in the potential of a technology that’s still being built.
“We have to always remind ourselves that the direction of technology is a choice, right? We can use AI to build a surveillance economy that squeezes every drop of value out of a worker, or we can use it to build an era of shared prosperity,” Gupta said.“We know if technology were designed and deployed and governed by the people doing the work, AI wouldn’t be such a threat.”
Is Tim Wilson an ‘inflation nutter’? Why the new shadow treasurer’s RBA comments are making waves
There was good news on Thursday.Another solid month of jobs growth left the unemployment rate steady at 4.1% in January.The impressive resilience of Australia’s jobs market has been the positive story of the post-pandemic economy.We have come out the other side of the global health crisis and a once-in-a-generation inflationary event with a jobless rate that has tracked consistently one percentage point below where it was through the dog days of the late 2010s
Airbus suggests split solution for Europe’s faltering fighter jet programme
Airbus has suggested splitting Europe’s faltering future fighter jet programme into two separate warplanes, amid a dispute between manufacturers over who leads the €100bn (£87bn) project.The company’s defence arm – which represents Germany and Spain – and the French partner, Dassault Aviation, are locked in a battle over the jet part of the Future Combat Air System (FCAS), a wide-ranging project that will also include autonomous drones and a futuristic “combat communications cloud”.Guillaume Faury, Airbus’s chief executive, said on Thursday that the deadlock over the planned next-generation jet “should not jeopardise the entire future of this hi-tech European capability, which will bolster our collective defence.“If mandated by our customers, we would support a two-fighter solution and are committed to playing a leading role in such a reorganised FCAS delivered through European cooperation.”Earlier this week, the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, signalled that the planned warplane did not suit Germany’s needs, in the latest blow to the project
Accenture ‘links staff promotions to use of AI tools’
Accenture has reportedly started tracking staff use of its AI tools and will take this into consideration when deciding on top promotions, as the consulting company tries to increase uptake of the technology by its workforce.The company told senior managers and associate directors that being promoted to leadership roles would require “regular adoption” of artificial intelligence, according to an internal email seen by the Financial Times.The consultancy has also begun collecting data on weekly log-ins to its AI tools by some senior staff members, the FT reports.Accenture has previously said it has trained 550,000 of its 780,000-strong workforce in generative AI, up from only 30 people in 2022, and has announced it is rolling out training to all of its employees as part of its annual $1bn (£740m) annual spend on learning.Among the tools whose use will reportedly be monitored is Accenture’s AI Refinery
Ebay buys Depop for $1.2bn in effort to lure younger shoppers
The online retailer eBay has agreed to buy the British secondhand fashion resale app Depop from Etsy for about $1.2bn (£890m) in cash, as eBay targets younger fashion-loving consumers.The deal comes at a time when secondhand marketplaces continue to soar in popularity, especially among gen Z shoppers – born between 1997 and 2012 – amid a squeeze on household incomes and concerns about sustainability in fashion.However, the sale to eBay marks a $400m loss for Etsy, an online market that focuses on craft and handmade items, which bought Depop for $1.6bn less than five years ago
Australia beat India by 19 runs in second women’s T20 international – as it happened
After a disappointing loss in Sydney and the frustration of not being able to finish the game due to the rain, Australia came into this match with a lot of determination. Their batting score appeared under par and India’s start made it look like it was certain to be that way, but a strong bowling performance through the middle and late overs of the game secured the win for the home team.Voll was a well-deserved player of the match – her determination set the standard for her teammates and ensured her team had a strong platform to build from. While the batting innings finished in a disappointing manner for Australia, it was a good enough score to give the bowlers something to defend and they gave their all to defending it.For India, Shafali and Smriti put on a great opening stand, but after Shafali was out, the scoring rate stalled
I went back to my alma mater and saw how women’s sports have changed
I’ve been going to Columbia basketball games since I was an undergraduate in the 1960s. As a junior, I did some play-by-play for WKCR, the student-run radio station. There was a time long ago when I went to almost every Lions home game. I’m talking about the men. There wasn’t a women’s basketball team until 1984
Ministers must end ‘barking mad’ restraints on civil service pay, union leader warns
Countries that do not embrace AI could be left behind, says OpenAI’s George Osborne
When dual nationality leads to double trouble | Letters
Why dispute ruling on Palestine Action, but accept legal challenge on elections? | Brief letters
UK politics: Starmer says Reform’s pledge to restore two-child benefit cap in full is ‘shameful’ – as it happened
Labour insiders fear ‘annihilation’ in Lancashire local elections after U-turn