Using AI to Decommoditize "Lower-Skilled" Workers

Blue-collar work is almost entirely platform intermediated. Thousands of employee scheduling systems and gig work apps determine who works when, for what pay. Each platform is a task-based vertical; Doordash for deliveries, Qwickgo for hospitality bookings, Me@Walmart for shifts at the local Supercenter, Rover for petcare work, and so on.

 

Selling across multiple platforms is self-defeating[1]  . Workers are stuck in siloes, with no data to inform their selection.

 

Lower-skilled breadwinners have decreasing chances of a steady job. Instead, they rely on nonjob employment; deployed by tech., as needed, in any silo. Official data barely capture this trend, confirmed by countless reports. But even pre-Covid, 36% of US adults relied on ad-hoc work. Containing labor costs is key for platforms; AI is increasingly something being done to this, already disempowered, workforce.

 

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Blue-collar portfolio employment can be enriching. Most people have a multi-faceted range of capabilities and life experiences, each of which they could monetize. The key is horizontal markets for hour-by-hour labor in any region. They offer all types of work seamlessly across hundreds of sectors.

 

Each person will be eligible for multiple sectors, choosing their path with real-time, ultra-granular and localized, like-for-like actionable data. AI tools can use that to upskill, trigger support, regularize hours, align supply with demand, plot steppingstones to a goal, foster job creation, and more.

 

Public agencies in the UK, and now US, are piloting how their unique leverage can instigate horizontal hour-by-hour regional labor markets. Our technology development and learning from these initiatives shows the way currently siloed, interchangeable, cheapened, angry, workers can each become a differentiated asset to be unleashed in their local economy; working at times they choose for a mix of organizations on their own terms, with pathways upward.

 

Moravec's paradox tells us humanity will remain better at soft-skilled tasks than robots. In reality, this is now nonjob work. Keeping humans competitive while rewarded for adaptability, reliability and each person's unique capabilities should be an economic and societal priority. It requires workforce funders and agencies to think beyond jobs and also empower nonjob labor markets. 

 

[1] If you are unavailable to System A while doing an assignment sent by System B, A's algorithms will likely downgrade you, curtailing your future work. And vice versa.