At Charter we report extensively on artificial intelligence in the workplace, and we view the technology as a major opportunity for businesses. But we’re also concerned that employers will reflexively adopt AI as a cost-cutting tool rather than an opportunity to expand their businesses while improving the quality of jobs. For all of AI’s potential to transform organizations for the better, it could also undermine diversity, equity, and inclusion unless people leaders take targeted efforts to counteract that.
In the new playbook “Using AI in ways that enhance worker dignity and inclusion,” our original research suggests that women, workers of color, and those over 55 could be disproportionately disadvantaged by workplace uses of AI and automation. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
With support and funding from the Innovation Resource Center for Human Resources and in partnership with the research platform Glimpse, we surveyed 1,173 individual contributors and managers across three sectors: manufacturing, service, and knowledge work. This project also contains guidance from a range of practitioners, labor economists, research scientists, and organizers to help contextualize what’s known and unknown about AI in modern workplaces, including lessons from past technological transformations.
Here are our findings and frameworks for adopting AI in ways that put workers at the center, as well as our recommended reading list. Fortune, Business Insider, and WorkLife are among the media organizations that have covered this research.
You can also read the follow-up guide to this report—"AI in the workplace: How companies and workers are getting it right"—published in May 2024, that focuses on specific case studies from companies' experiences rolling out AI.
We’re supporting HR leaders’ strategic leadership on AI and work, equipping them to own the redefinition of jobs and establishment of planning, policies, and culture around this far-reaching technology shift.
You can contact us at [email protected] to talk about how to adapt your organization to the changing world of AI. Follow along with our AI strategy briefing memos, all designed to get you everything you need to know for 2024 planning:
