The role of media in exposing discrimination, workplace health, safety, or other violations has generally produced desirable outcomes. Negative advertising encourages businesses to take action to correct the issue for the benefit of suffering employees.
However, in today's era, characterized by the advancement of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, rapid fire technological advances, the exposure of workplace misconduct and practices has encouraged businesses to invest more in AI as a long-term resolve to ultimately reduce the human labor force.
This unintended consequence of media exposure to labor-related issues is the subject of a recently published new peer-reviewed study by the Miamipati University and the Alan Herbert Business School team, a graduate of Boshuo Island, currently an assistant professor of business management at the University of Pittsburgh. Nina Fan, Professor of Business Technology. Wei Sy, a management professor and a professor at Cesarano.
“Journalists play an important role in society, and their goal to expose these issues is to let businesses take action to deal with them. However, this reporting could be motivated to invest in AI that can potentially exchange employee benefits.
SHI was in stark contrast to the short-term, long-term responses of businesses when faced with workforce violations.
“When workplace issues become clear, in the short term, businesses may be forced to take action to address the issue,” he said. “But solving them can be expensive, so in the long run, companies will try to replace their workforce with AI technology. This is not in the interest of their employees.”
As a graduate student at a business school and a long-standing interest in the labor market, Li has begun focusing on how companies develop strategies to tackle today's workforce challenges. His curiosity in this field catalyzed research.
“As technology like AI becomes more common in the workplace, businesses are navigating new combinations of pressure and opportunity,” he said. “In this study, we wanted to understand how companies use AI to address these labor challenges, and we wanted to understand what this means for employment, skills and the long-term performance of the company.”
The team was looking for a variety of industries, but the findings that increased AI investments occurred, particularly for white-collar, highly skilled technology employment, explained Huang, who focuses on how digital technology can improve the user experience. Automation was previously primarily aimed at blue-collar workers, she noted.
Researchers cited the case of International Business Machinery Corporation (IBM), which reports that media exposed wage and time violations and labor discrimination. In response, IBM has significantly increased its investments in the Watsonx platform, particularly in the Watsonx platform, to automate tasks traditionally performed by skilled professionals.
Similarly, Huang highlighted the case of Uber and Tesla. The former employees urged the company to unionize to ensure better treatment of workers. The subsequent legal and court battles in terms of how drivers are categorized have driven them to accelerate their investment in autonomous driving technology with the ultimate goal of replacing human drivers.
This means that labor appears to be narrowed down at first glance in a “cannot win” scenario. First, due to workplace complaints or violations, and if they are exposed, the company will ultimately try to replace them.
“Workers need to upgrade their skills to mitigate potential job displacements, work with algorithms, and work with AI to develop the skills needed to improve productivity and AI synergy,” Huang said, referring to the claims promoted in the AI literature that was promoted when humans collaborate with the synergy of technology.
Shi, whose research interests focus on the influence of governance actors (committees, shareholders, media, etc.) on strategic decisions, noted that this trend is likely to continue because of companies that are under pressure to generate fierce competition and profits for AI advantages.
“If you imagine your competitors have technology, you have to do the same thing to reduce costs. Companies are profit-based and employing AI helps.
In addition to research citations, Huang pointed to recent news reports demonstrating a trend towards reducing the white-collar workforce. US technology giant Dell Technology has cut its workforce and, among other things, dumped 3% of its workers.
“We're really wary of these companies cutting their workforce and the stock market is rewarding them,” she said.
Both Huang and Shi stressed that the responsibility lies with policymakers who enact policies that promote the development of responsible AI for workers and the protection of labor.
“It's up to policymakers to recognize that the workforce can be evacuated, and if they don't take this seriously, it can cause short-term social issues,” Shee said.
“These meanings must be food as educators to consider how we can best prepare our students for the future,” Huang said.
“However, this evidence of employment should be of great concern to policymakers seeking to balance responsible technological advancements with social welfare,” she added. “They need to consider ways to make society more human-friendly.”
