Great to see IFOW Research Fellow Shuting Xia contribute to this LSE blog on good work questions around digital work in developing economies.

The Keep Britain Working Review published this week highlighted the significant challenges in supporting people in work amidst growing health struggles. At an expert roundtable in March, we met with Sir Charlie Mayfield to underscore the impact of workplace technologies on health and wellbeing.

How much uncertainty can be tolerated when it comes to regulating AI? In a new blog piece, Professor Moore @digigirlz.bsky.social explores the autonomy and unpredictability that creates artificial intelligence - and what this means for risk and regulation. Read below:

Our November newsletter is here! Read below for the comment on recent regulatory developments in the UK and EU, and to catch up on curated reads and events from the #FutureofWork space. If you're not subscribed, sign up here to get next month's newsletter in full: www.ifow.org/newsletter

The labour market can seem a little spooky at the moment. Talk of a gloomy graduate 'jobpocalypse' and predictions of AI taking jobs can loom large. But unmask these narratives and a more nuanced picture appears...

Only 1% of CEOs have a fully formed AI strategy. Despite this, over 75% businesses are using generative AI, as shared by @financialtimes.com this week. The stakes of AI adoption in workplaces are high across the board - for worker wellbeing, for organisations and for the labour market more widely.

As work continues to see rapid technological transformation, it is more vital than ever that young people are best equipped to access future good jobs. Our work on this is featured in the Edge Foundation’s latest Skills Bulletin.

Great to be at @bectu.bsky.social's roundtable in parliament yesterday, marking the launch of Bectu's Big Survey on the creative industries. The report highlights ten key challenges for workers in the screen industries, including the post-Covid slowdown, job insecurity, low pay and poor conditions.

Fair pay and conditions are essential to good work and are foundational to our Good Work Charter. New data from @livingwagefoundation shows that many workers are struggling with pay levels and hours, which has serious consequences for workers' wellbeing and quality of life.

Today's announcement is a welcome initiative - innovation and good governance should advance together. Our regulatory ecosystems are increasingly fragmented and Sandboxes can help resolve this. The most powerful Sandbox designs don’t just test - they teach lessons on how to improve governance.

Exciting to be in both Grimsby and Cornwall this week with our community researchers, synthesising data from 50 researcher interviews. We created design challenges and continued developing prototypes for our Flourish programme, working regionally to bring together job seekers and employers.

Skills, regional development and labour market participation were raised in the House of Lords this week, so we're looking back at @ippr.org and @thespectator1828.bsky.social panel, where discussions focused on supporting workers into and sustaining good work through technological transformation.

How can the UK turn AI ambitions into genuine capability? This Raconteur article looks at the UK's significant AI skills gap - and the need for a national infrastructure that supports AI-platform engineers and pilot projects, while also strengthening digital sovereignty. @delivervalue.bsky.social

TFI Friday? For #WorldMentalHealthDay, we're flagging the importance of work to our wellbeing. Our interviews with workers, taken as part of our Pissarides Review, surfaced how new technologies can lead to the intensification of work, concerns about surveillance and loneliness...

Small businesses could save a day a week if they use AI, recent research from Google claims. For a long time, technology has promised to increase productivity while creating more free time for workers to spend on more valuable or ‘rewarding' tasks.

We were delighted to attend @fesonline.bsky.social Future of Work Conference in Brussels this week, gathering political, academic, trade union and civil partners from across Europe. We look forward to sharing more practical ways to support and create the good jobs that lead to a fairer society.

Autonomy, dignity, fair pay - these are some key principles that underpin good work. Great to be discussing how to support good transitions into work at the @conservatives.bsky.social Party Conference yesterday with @ippr.org and @thespectator1828.bsky.social. Read our full Good Work Charter below:

Great to be in Brussels as guests of FES Future of Work, who convened an excellent 'lab' day with economists, academics, trades unions and policymakers discussing work as a key site for social democracy.

As the first October weekend approaches, here's a reminder that our monthly newsletter was sent out yesterday. Here's the full piece on our website:

Our October newsletter is here! September saw sharpened national focus on the #FutureofWork, with party conference announcements this week on the Youth Guarantee scheme and the PM's pledge to increase numbers enrolled in higher technical courses and apprenticeships. Read all about it here:

See the @ifow.org report I co-authored on this, following workshops done in schools from Bodmin to Oldham on AI, future mapping and what young people think of tech. www.ifow.org/publications...

Great to be in Liverpool today with @eyfoundation.bsky.social for expert round table of MPs, careers support specialists and firms presenting on how young people from lower-income backgrounds can access better jobs in this era of AI turbulence. Motivation is key, as is time for reflective practice.

Great to have our Associate Director @oliver-nash.bsky.social on BBC Radio London this morning, discussing the importance of human-centric skills in an ever technologising labour market, as heard below:

Yesterday we were in Birmingham again with @eyfoundation.bsky.social running pilot interventions with young people from low-income backgrounds. The Motivating Futures workshops are designed to cultivate intrinsic motivation and help young people towards futures of work that align with their values.

We're #hiring! IFOW is looking for a Policy and Public Affairs Lead to build our policy development, advocacy, and external engagement strategy. The role will help shape policy debates, coordinate our parliamentary engagement, and expand IFOW’s influence across the policy ecosystem. Apply below:

Prior to the US-UK tech deal announcements last week, our Co-Director @abbygkgilbert.bsky.social spoke at @cambridgetechweek.bsky.social about the need to manage risks for UK businesses integrating Software as a Service (SaaS) hosted by US big tech into workplaces and systems.

Was so great to be a part of this forum on GenAI and the Novel - really excited to Dr @clemicollett.bsky.social's work published later this year. It's a vital and urgent call for the UK to celebrate and sustain the creative industries - one of the finest jewels in our cultural and economic crown.

A third of UK firms are using 'bossware' to track their employees' work, according to a survey published by @theguardian.com last week, including using 'office snooping' technology to monitor workers' emails, screen activity and web browsing.

So enjoying taking part in the first @digitcentre.bsky.social CoLab Forum. Co-convened with us and @futuredotnow.bsky.social, we're bringing together researchers, civil society, firms and gov to help shape Digit's 5-year research into how the benefits of digital transformation can be shared.

Yesterday, IOFW team members travelled to Birmingham for a stakeholder engagement session hosted by @eyfoundation.bsky.social and West Midlands Combined Authority, to present early findings from our Motivating Futures project. Read our September mid-month spotlight here to find out more:

Exciting to see members of the team in #design #thinking workshops today for Flourish, our development of a new platform helping people access work opportunities in the UK green sector.

As the labour market undergoes rapid changes, as do the skills required by employers from workers. Many young people face significant challenges if they are not equipped with the right skills or opportunities to access good work, as was discussed in the House of Lords earlier this week.

Great to have our co-director Anna Thomas MBE supporting @mctd.bsky.social Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy at Somerset House today, alongside @gaiamarcus.bsky.social, Director of @adalovelaceinst.bsky.social, and Matt Warman, former Digital Minister and UKAI Board Member.

Labour shortages, climate change and crop wastage are contributing to the most challenging period so far in the global agriculture industry. New technologies are being implemented, but more critical analysis is needed to understand the role of humans and robotics in the future of farming.

Great to be spending the day with many of the team focusing on #Design #Thinking and Design #Research, led superbly by Re:Shape Collective - who bring huge experience from work across Arup, social policy design and #UX.

Having admitted that it used pirated works to build its LLM, in "the first class action settlement centered on AI and copyright in the United States", #Anthropic have now agreed to pay compensation to authors. It is unlikely to be the last. www.wired.com/story/anthro...

Last week, Lloyd's Register Foundation released a report examining the potential of new technologies to transform the health and safety of workers. New automated technologies can improve safety by warning workers of nearby hazards and dangers or improving virtual training for emergency situations.

The @wsj.com reported this week on research published by a team of US and Italian academics that concluded that those with lower AI literacy are more likely to "more likely to perceive AI as magical and experience feelings of awe in the face of AI's execution of tasks" www.wsj.com/tech/ai/ai-a...

A survey by @livingwageuk.bsky.social showed that 3/4 people in the UK have heard of the Living Wage. Building on this, they have announced a new 'Living Hours' campaign, focusing on fair contracts, guaranteed notice periods, and minimum hours: www.livingwage.org.uk/living-hours

Great to see the impacts of AI on Civil Service productivity discussed in @houseoflords.parliament.uk yesterday, with Lord Vallance emphasising the importance of training up public sector workers in generative AI. See Lord Vallance's keynote address at our Pissarides Review conference below:

How are emerging technologies affecting jobs and workers in the UK? Our September newsletter, out today, examines recent evidence on how GenAI pilots might be impacting the labour market. Read more below:

Our September newsletter will be landing in inboxes on Monday - the best digest of all that is happening in the #FutureOfWork space. This month includes a deep dive on data relating to AI and jobs, as well as a top selection of reads and events. Subscribe here:

Delighted to welcome Jack Orlik, Maxwell Ababio, Stephanie Antonian and Oli Whittington as IFOW Fellows of Practice. Complementing our network of Research Fellows, our Fellows of Practice develop interventions to operationalise our findings and work at the frontline of our future of work research.

Regulating new technologies must be about 'anticipating and mitigating risks to our most important resource: the workforce'. We're delighted to see IFOW's Dr Magdalena Soffia commenting on the Lloyd's Register Foundation new report on emerging technologies and workers' health and safety.

IFOW are off to Birmingham! We're really excited to witness the EY Foundation piloting a workshop with young people on the importance of intrinsic motivation as they navigate automised and technologised futures. Read the research in our report 'Motivating Futures' , co-produced with EYF, below:

What are the implications of Emotional Artificial Intelligence monitoring on the human ability to experience genuine and free emotional lives? IFOW Research Fellow Emine Akar's new blog describes the dangers of reducing emotions into data to be 'measured, optimised, and corrected'.

As the largest period of technological transition since industrialisation continues to dawn, we need to widen our view of the risks and opportunities of AI beyond 'robots coming for jobs' Read further in this excellent summary by our Co-Director @abbygkgilbert.bsky.social

Wishing all who are getting results today the very best. The future is still to be created, and we need our young people - from all walks of life - to be central to that. We recently published some work looking at the central place of motivation to this future agency: www.ifow.org/publications...

Great to see our Senior Research Fellow Professor Moore @digigirlz.bsky.social quoted in the Observer on Saturday, discussing the growing dangers of digital profiling in the workplace. Our report 'Data on our minds: Affective computing at work', co-authored by Moore, explores this topic in detail:

In 2021, IFOW published the Good Work Monitor, a detailed regional map that tracks access to #goodwork across all 203 local authorities in England, Scotland and Wales. Each year since then, we've continued to trace national productivity and good work trends. Read our Good Work Monitor 2025 below.