A new working paper from the International Labour Organization (ILO) has found that while artificial intelligence (AI) technologies can improve efficiency and productivity, they can also create risks for psychosocial working conditions, through workplace surveillance, work intensification, reduced job autonomy, and concerns around privacy and data use.
The paper examines how artificial intelligence (AI), which functions in ways profoundly different from traditional management, is reshaping the psychosocial work environment and highlights emerging risks to workers' mental and social well-being.
As AI technologies are increasingly used across the full employment cycle. They are reshaping how work is planned, organized, and managed, including in areas such as recruitment, monitoring and performance management. More broadly, the paper points to challenges linked to the use of AI in workplace management, both in digital platforms but also in traditional workplaces, including limited transparency in decision-making and the growing role of data-driven monitoring systems and how countries are responding to these challenges through regulatory measures.
It also highlights that these risks are not always well captured by existing occupational safety and health frameworks, which, in many countries, still tend to focus more on physical hazards than on mental and social aspects of work.
To date, there is no comprehensive legislation that specifically addresses AI-related changes to the world of work, this ILO paper stresses that addressing risks generated by digital technologies would require an integrated policy approach. This includes combining labour and employment regulation with occupational safety and health, equality and non-discrimination, and data protection frameworks.
By discussing how AI is affecting the psychosocial work environment, the paper aims to support policymakers in developing responses that protect workers' well-being while managing technological change.
