The AI Workplace: Can Artificial Intelligence Deliver on SDG 8?

Balca Arda, Yunus Emre Öztaş, Dario Guarascio, Jelena Reljic · 8 Oct 2026

Where this sits in the debate

Will AI destroy more jobs than it creates? · its finding: it depends (why studies differ)

Direction of the finding as read from the abstract by an AI model (AI-written).

Key takeaway AI-written

A two-part webinar on AI and Sustainable Development Goal 8 (decent work). One talk covers creative workers' experiences with generative AI; the other reviews evidence that AI's effects on employment, skills, income distribution and workplace power depend on organisational choices, institutions and policy rather than technology alone.

The paper in three steps AI-written

Written by an AI agent from the paper's abstract, which is the primary source and is quoted below.

The question

Can AI support Sustainable Development Goal 8 on growth with productive employment and decent work?

The approach

A recorded webinar of two talks: one on creative workers' lived experience with generative AI, one reviewing recent research on AI's labour-market impacts.

The findings

The talks describe tensions between efficiency and creativity, and argue that AI's effects on employment, skills, income distribution and workplace power depend on organisational choices, institutions and policy.

How to read it: commentary. An argued position by researchers — informed opinion rather than new evidence.

Limitations and counterpoints AI-written

It is a seminar recording that summarises other work; the abstract reports no new data or estimates.

Abstract

Artificial intelligence is increasingly reshaping workplaces, occupations, and organisational practices across the global economy. While advocates highlight its potential to drive innovation, productivity, and economic growth, concerns remain about its implications for job quality, worker autonomy, skills, inequality, and the future of decent work. These tensions sit at the heart of Sustainable Development Goal 8, which calls for sustained economic growth alongside productive employment and decent work for all. This webinar brings together two complementary perspectives on the relationship between AI and work. The first seminar explores the lived experiences of creative workers navigating the rise of generative AI, revealing complex tensions between efficiency and creativity, democratisation and precarity, as well as automation and human agency. It raises important questions about identity, meaning, and authorship in an AI-enabled workplace, arguing for worker-centred approaches to technological adoption. The second seminar takes a broader view, examining emerging evidence on AI's labour market impacts across occupations, organisations, and economies. Drawing on recent scholarship, it highlights how AI's effects on employment, skills, income distribution, and workplace power relations are shaped not by technology alone, but by organisational choices, institutional frameworks, and policy interventions. Together, the two talks move beyond simplistic narratives of technological optimism or pessimism. They invite us to consider how AI can be developed, governed, and implemented in ways that support both innovation and human flourishing, opening a critical discussion about whether AI can genuinely contribute to the ambitions of SDG 8 and the creation of more inclusive, productive, and decent workplaces. Re-evaluating creative labour in the age of artificial intelligence This session is based on our qualitative study of how generative AI reshapes creative workers' self-un

About this publication

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Published: 2026 (recently)
Citations: 0 (OpenAlex)

0 citations recorded by OpenAlex — too few 2026 papers in this collection for a fair comparison.