According to the report, despite the recovery in nominal wage growth, real wages are falling in almost all OECD countries, and due to high inflation. The loss of purchasing power is especially challenging for workers in low-income households. Parallelly, Artificial Intelligence is making its way in the world of work, creating uncertainty on its impact in the labour market, and in privacy matters. The report suggests more suitable policy actions to promote a trustworthy use of AI, and the need to gather new and better data on its use in the workplace (i.e. jobs that are likely to change, be created, disappear, skills shifting).

In 2022, the OECD itself collected data on the impact of AI on people and their workplaces in the manufacturing and finance sectors of seven countries. 

Initial results from the survey show that AI use at work can lead to positive outcomes for workers around job satisfaction, health, and wages.

Nevertheless, the study found some challenges linked to “data protection and privacy, transparency and justification, bias and discrimination, automatic decision making and accountability”.

The report strikes the importance of policies and social dialogue to balance the abovementioned opposing forces: building on existing legislation - such as on discrimination or data protection - and developing AI-specific legislation and soft law.

Collective bargaining and social dialogue remain key to support workers and businesses in the AI transition.