OSH and the Future of Work: Benefits and Risks of Artificial Intelligence Tools in Workplaces

There are significant possibilities for workplace progress and growth in productivity with the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) applications and tools in workplaces. However, there are also important occupational safety and health (OSH)-related questions arising as AI is integrated into workplaces. Stress, discrimination, heightened precariousness, musculoskeletal disorders, and the possibilities of work intensification and job losses have already been shown to pose psychosocial risks, including physical violence in digitalised workplaces. These risks are exacerbated when AI augments already existing technological tools or are newly introduced for workplace management and design. Indeed, AI exaggerates OSH risks in digitalised workplaces, because it can allow increased monitoring and tracking and thus may lead to micro-management, which a prime cause of stress and anxiety. AI stresses the imperative of giving more credibility and potentially authority to prediction machines, robotics and algorithmic processes at work. But it is worth stressing that it is not technology in isolation that creates OSH benefits or risks. It is instead the implementation of technologies that creates negative or positive conditions.