Uber’s introduction of AI agents to manage workers is a disturbing and dangerous development

This week Uber announced the imminent introduction of an “AI Assistant for drivers and couriers to help them plan their day and increase their earnings.”

The introduction of such technologies by Uber marks a significant shift towards more intrusive surveillance and performance monitoring of their workforce than ever before.

Uber seeks to use AI Agents to manipulate the behaviour of individual workers by the process of nudges and subtle coercion. This will lead to hyper-personalisation of work allocation and pay setting that maximises profits for Uber at the cost to the collective workforce.

Coming on top of Uber’s introduction of dynamic pay systems in 2023, where pay and commission for drivers is variably set in real time rather than fixed, the use of AI Assistants to help drivers “plan their days and increase their earnings” is particularly concerning. Worker Info Exchange recently announced collective legal action against Uber over the company’s unlawful use of dynamic pay setting system.

Besides the risk of deepening algorithmic wage discrimination, such technologies will cause further dangerous distractions for drivers on the road as they are constantly gamed to interact with the in-app AI Agent.

Since inception, Uber has misclassified drivers as self-employed rather than employed workers. The use of pervasive communication tools like AI Agents will be further used to misinform and misdirect workers. Such technologies undermine the collective rights of workers to bargain for pay directly through their trade union. Instead, Uber would have individual workers negotiate in vain with a synthetic management layer for the improved conditions and pay they deserve.

Worker Info Exchange (WIE), a non-profit helping workers reclaim control over the data collected from them at work, pointed out that:

• Use of AI in this way, in conjunction with already introduced dynamic pay systems, will lead to intensification of algorithmic wage discrimination
• AI Assistants can be a dangerous distraction while driving
• WIE is already taking legal action against Uber over dynamic pay

James Farrar, Director of Worker Info Exchange said:

The introduction of AI Agents by Uber to manage its workforce is a sinister and disturbing development. Without adequate legal protections of an employment relationship and coming on top of recently introduced dynamic pay and pricing systems, workers are exposed to exploitation and algorithmic wage discrimination like never before. Regulators must urgently intervene to protect the rights of workers now put at great risk by employers with the unethical and exploitative use of AI at work.