The effects of automation in labour have rarely been studied approaching one single emergent technology with the potential to swiftly change employment patterns. The emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to create disruptive effects in the employment systems across the world. The future deployment of broad-spectrum algorithms capable of being used in wide areas of application (e.g. industrial robotics, software and data communication) can lead to considerable changes in current work patterns, swiftly render many unemployed across the globe and profoundly destabilise labour relations.

Project InteliArt aims to identify the probable penetration of AI in the next decade and to study its effects on work organization, employment and industrial relations systems in a selection of European countries. InteliArt will answer four questions: What is the expectable penetration of AI in selected European countries? What are the effects of AI on work organisation and employment? What are the effects of AI in the industrial relations systems? Can social partners agree on measures to mitigate AI effects in work and employment? The project will study the effects of AI in three sectors: automotive, banking and ports. InteliArt will develop interviews and focus groups with innovation experts and technology managers in companies about the penetration of AI, experts on work organization and labour processes and actors of industrial relations. Results will contribute not only to companies and industrial actors working within the three sectors, but also to the debates about the automation effects on the organization of work, employment and industrial relations.