[Paper Review] Artificial Intelligence and work: a critical review of recent research from the social sciences

Jean‐Philippe Deranty, T. E. Corbin|arXiv (Cornell University)|Feb 25, 2022

Digital Economy and Work Transformation28 citations

TL;DR

A comprehensive social-science review of how AI is expected to affect work, covering technological unemployment, algorithmic management, platform work, and the politics surrounding AI work, with a focus on disciplinary perspectives, methodologies, and deployment constraints.

ABSTRACT

This review seeks to present a comprehensive picture of recent discussions in the social sciences of the anticipated impact of AI on the world of work. Issues covered include technological unemployment, algorithmic management, platform work an the politics of AI work. The review identifies the major disciplinary and methodological perspectives on AI's impact on work, and the obstacles they face in making predictions. Two parameters influencing the development and deployment of AI in the economy are highlighted, the capitalist imperative and nationalistic pressures.

Motivation & Objective

• Summarize recent social-science discussions on the anticipated impact of AI on work.
• Identify major disciplinary and methodological perspectives informing AI-work predictions.
• Highlight obstacles in making predictions about AI's impact on labor markets and organizations.
• Discuss factors shaping AI development and deployment in the economy, including capitalist imperatives and nationalistic pressures.

Proposed method

• Synthesize diverse social-science literatures on AI and work.
• Categorize perspectives by discipline, methodology, and scope of impact.
• Analyze theoretical and empirical approaches to technological unemployment, algorithmic management, platform work, and AI politics.
• Identify recurring challenges and gaps in predicting AI-enabled labor outcomes.
• Discuss external pressures (capitalist imperatives, nationalism) shaping AI adoption.

Experimental results

Research questions

• RQ1 What are the main disciplinary and methodological perspectives on AI's impact on work in social sciences?
• RQ2 What obstacles do researchers face when predicting AI-driven changes in labor markets and organizational practices?
• RQ3 How do capitalist imperatives and nationalistic pressures influence the development and deployment of AI in the economy?
• RQ4 What facets of AI work (unemployment, algorithmic management, platform work, politics) are most central in recent research?

Key findings

• The review maps major disciplinary and methodological strands shaping AI and work research.
• It identifies common obstacles to making robust predictions about AI's labor impact.
• It highlights two influential development parameters: capitalist imperative and nationalistic pressures.
• It discusses how AI-related work practices intersect with governance, labor markets, and policy.
• It notes gaps in forecasting and suggests directions for integrating social-science insights into AI work discourse.