The rapid introduction of AI tools in the workplace has created new challenges for workers in China. While these technologies promise much, so far, they have had numerous detrimental impacts for employees.
Innovation and the mass deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) promise an easier, more productive work life where people are freed from repetitive duties to focus on more innovative tasks. The rise of powerful AI solutions is also rewriting the rules of work and labour relations, the effect of which will become more pronounced in the coming decade.
Much of the current attention around AI’s impact on work focuses on the potential for job losses. Yet, despite increased interest, there is limited research into how employees are affected by workplace AI. From retail to investment banking, emerging technologies are already drastically reshaping the nature of work. Throughout a candidate’s working life, AI-enabled tools (see Chapter 3) are transforming the everyday experiences of employees, affecting their autonomy, rights, benefits and, most importantly, their relative power to employers.
This research paper explores these changes in China, a country of 1.4 billion people that is rapidly integrating AI into everything from public services to business operations and is increasingly leading on global standards in the field. This paper demonstrates how AI is being deployed in real-world workplaces in China and how workers respond to it. A key finding is that the enhanced efficiency achieved through AI has not translated into better quality jobs for Chinese workers. Instead, the AI solutions are often designed to facilitate employers’ extraction of both paid and unpaid labour, leading to deteriorating conditions and increased job insecurity for workers – quite the opposite of what is often promised.
The research adopts a qualitative approach to better understand the nuances of how AI solutions are being used in detailed work processes and how they affect people’s work experience. The insights were drawn from more than 50 interviews during a two-month period of fieldwork in Shenzhen and Beijing in early 2023. Interviewees include company executives, software developers, customer-facing workers, human resource professionals, scholars and lawyers in China. The author scheduled interviews with a small group of initial participants from her existing network, and then identified new interview subjects through the references of those interviewed. Data were gathered both through formal interviews as well as in casual settings, such as conversations over meals and during taxi journeys. The author asked a set of structured questions with follow-ups based on the respective roles of interviewees. In order to understand common design features and intended objectives of AI tools, the author undertook a review of over 20 products used by Chinese employers. The information was obtained through official product websites and posts on their social media accounts. The author also posed as a potential customer to obtain further information through message exchanges with sales representatives.
While the enhanced capacity of AI to carry out complex human tasks could lead to increased job losses, this research paper focuses on how AI tools affect the experience of workers and their job quality, with the aim of providing a more nuanced and human-centric perspective beyond economics. The research also looks to bridge a knowledge gap in AI and labour studies, by offering fresh evidence from China, which remains largely inaccessible to researchers from overseas organizations.
To investigate the implementation of AI solutions in key employment processes, the research used an analytical framework that focused on the shift of power between business owners and workers. This approach takes into account a well-recognized understanding in labour studies that workers face greater risk of exploitation and discrimination when they have weaker bargaining power compared to their bosses. The research is based on the assumption that workers will be at greater risk of exploitation if AI further amplifies the existing power imbalance between employers and employees.
China’s AI roll-out offers a compelling opportunity to study this technology’s impact in the workplace due to the country’s unique socio-economic environment. The combination of rapid AI development, cutthroat competition, strong state support, and weak labour and privacy safeguards has led to more aggressive and faster AI adoption in China’s workplaces compared to the West. China’s wide range of industries, from big tech companies like Alibaba and Tencent to small village factories, shows the varied risks workers face across different parts of industry value chains. This provides valuable lessons for policymakers from countries at different stages of economic development to create their own AI policies.
The paper aims to contribute to global policies by identifying problematic practices and potential pitfalls in China’s recent application of AI in work settings. However, the paper does not aim to comprehensively evaluate the effectiveness and accuracy of AI solutions, map the specific technologies applied, or compare practices between China and other countries. These are all promising directions for further investigation.
A key takeaway from the study is that the contexts in which AI is deployed are as important as the technology itself. When AI adoption is solely motivated by market forces, such as supply and demand, it can leave workers extremely vulnerable. Without proper checks and balances, AI solutions tend to be skewed in favour of business interests rather than the well-being of workers. As a result, the balance of power further shifts to employers due to their exclusive control over data and algorithms, whereas workers suffer diminishing bargaining leverage and become increasingly prone to manipulation and exploitation in both their professional and personal lives.
While China has a unique political economy, there are many shared concerns among workers around the world as powerful AI tools sweep into workplaces. To protect employees from exploitation in this new context, it is essential to address the root causes of the growing power imbalance between workers and business owners with a more holistic approach. This requires engagement of stakeholders and experts across disciplines as well as innovative efforts that go beyond the narrow scope of AI governance to areas such as market competition practices, labour rights protection, and reforms in education and skill training.
