Centering Workers in the Future of Tech
As artificial intelligence (AI) and other digital technologies reshape industries, working people are already seeing the impacts in their day-to-day lives. From hospitals to warehouses, schools to delivery platforms, these tools are being used to monitor, manage, and even replace workers — often without transparency, accountability, or consent.
We believe that technology should serve the people who power our economy — not exploit them. That means ensuring that tech innovation is guided by equity, racial justice, and worker voice.
The rapid rise of AI poses urgent questions for workers’ rights, economic justice, and democracy. But it also opens up opportunities: to demand strong safeguards, to organize for dignity on the job, and to reimagine a future where technology supports, rather than threatens, thriving communities.
Through coalition building, policy advocacy, and leadership development, we are working to ensure that:
- New workplace technologies don’t worsen discrimination, surveillance, or job insecurity
- Community and worker voices lead in decisions about how AI is adopted in public and private sectors
- Digital tools are deployed in ways that promote racial, gender, and economic justice
- We build organizing power across sectors impacted by automation, algorithmic decision-making, and tech-driven changes
- This work is part of our broader vision for the Future of Workers — one where Black, Indigenous, and workers of color are shaping the rules of the road in a changing economy, and building power to win safety, dignity, and shared prosperity.
What We’re Learning — and Building
In January 2025, we joined workers, unions, researchers, and community allies from across California at the Making Tech Work for Workers convening. Together, we shared strategies for responding to the ways AI is already transforming work — and imagined a future where digital innovation is guided by the needs of working people. We gained key insights from working people across a range of professions, as well as from academics, researchers, and union leaders.
- AI is already here — and it’s being used to hire, fire, surveil, and automate work, often with no oversight
- These tools can reinforce existing inequalities, especially for women, immigrants, and workers of color
- We need stronger laws, organizing strategies, and contract language to protect workers from digital exploitation
- Worker power is the solution — unions, community organizations, and grassroots leadership are essential to shaping tech for the common good
