AI, Work and Good Jobs

Led by Professor Niall Cullinane and Dr Conor McCabe from Queen's Business School. This event will take place in Room 02/025, Peter Frogatt Centre, Queen's University Belfast.

AI is no longer on the horizon, it’s already at work. From warehouses to offices, it promises efficiency and transformation, but also raises hard questions like who controls it? Who benefits? And how can workers be protected from harm?

Unions have long fought to shape how new technologies enter the workplace through collective bargaining. But AI brings new challenges: from its sheer speed, to its hidden algorithms, to its power to reshape entire jobs. These challenges are especially relevant in Northern Ireland, where building secure, high-quality employment is at the heart of the current “good jobs” agenda.

This workshop takes on those questions head-on. Drawing on three years of in-depth research into UK warehousing, a sector often seen as ground zero for AI-driven change, we’ll explore what AI means for work, how it might be governed, and what lessons can be learned for creating fairer futures of employment.

Join us to debate how AI at work can be steered away from harm and towards good jobs.

The session is open to the general public with a particular wish to invite trade union, employer representatives and policymakers with interests in this area.

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This event is part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science 2025 and was made possible thanks to funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), which is part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

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Host or Publisher ESRC Festival of Social Science in NI 2025