AI in Retail: What unions need to know
The AI industry is setting its sights on the retail sector. Rather than the wholesale job losses predicted by some, AI is radically transforming how work is organised, monitored, controlled and disciplined - producing new forms of managerial control while also creating points of contestation and windows of opportunity.
This Digit Debates event launches a new handbook on AI in retail work for unions operating in the sector. The handbook charts how AI is being used in retail and explores the risks and opportunities this presents for labour. Rather than viewing AI as an unavoidable technical wave, the handbook highlights how workers and unions are beginning to respond, proposing best practice for union representatives at the workplace and national levels, while recognising the broader dynamics of worker-management relations, corporate strategy, and financial pressures in the commerce sector. Understanding AI’s impact on retail requires looking beyond automation to the subtler, but no less significant, ways algorithmic systems reconfigure skills, autonomy, and power in the workplace - and how unions can seize the moment to maintain and expand rights and job quality.
Co-authors Rachel Verdin, Steve Rolf and Wil Hunt will be joined by an expert panel.
Image credit: Janet Turra & Digit / https://betterimagesofai.org / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/