How can unions use Artificial Intelligence to build power? The use of AI chatbots for labour organising in the US and Australia

Abstract

Artificial intelligence increasingly forms an essential context for the distribution of power within workplaces. Using the case study of an AI‐enabled chatbot initially created by IBM and subsequently developed by an alt‐labour network in the United States and a traditional union in Australia, this article outlines several distinctive ways in which the chatbot increased union resources and capabilities. Once reconfigured to reflect an ‘organising’, rather than ‘servicing’ ethos, the chatbot became an infrastructural resource that enabled otherwise marginal workers to receive basic information in a manner that reinforced union narratives of power and worker solidarity, and workplaces to be mapped more efficiently. The chatbot did not act as a labour saving tool, but stimulated wide‐ranging learning by bringing implicit tensions between ‘servicing’ and ‘organising’ conceptions of knowledge, power and expertise to the surface. Chatbots thus offer distinctive potential affordances to unions in enhancing their resources and capabilities as ‘orchestrators’ of worker power.

The Use of Chatbots in Digital Business Transformation: A Systematic Literature Review

“…26 studies used experiment as their main method, followed by questionnaire (16 papers). Some of the least utilised methods include patent analysis [86], content analysis [29], conceptual framework creation [20], secondary research [12], [23], [24], [87], and case study [22], [67], [88], [89].…”

Introduction to the Special Issue ‐ The internet, social media and trade union revitalization: Still behind the digital curve or catching up?

“…The second article Flanagan and Walker (2021) shifts the focus to unions and is one of the first of its kind to explore how they are using a reconfigured AI‐enabled chatbot (originally created by IBM) for organising workers. More specifically, the study focuses on the challenges and opportunities created by transposing the app from an alt‐labour network context in the USA to a traditional union context in Australia.…”

Adoption Factors of Artificial intelligence in Human Resource Management

“…Artificial intelligence (AI) plays a singular part in the emerged technological revolution that takes part in our organizations. It does not only transform organization activities, but also the way of organization attracts and assesses potential employees (Flanagan & Walker, 2021;Magistretti et al, 2019). Moreover, it increasingly forms an essential context for the performance analysis and distribution of manpower within workplaces driven by data generated from AI applications (Flanagan & Walker, 2021).…”

“…It does not only transform organization activities, but also the way of organization attracts and assesses potential employees (Flanagan & Walker, 2021;Magistretti et al, 2019). Moreover, it increasingly forms an essential context for the performance analysis and distribution of manpower within workplaces driven by data generated from AI applications (Flanagan & Walker, 2021). AI refers to the big umbrella of computer science that allows the performing of human tasks including human intelligence , decision making, analysing data, and recognizing the pattern of speak-visual-interpret (Bongard, 2019).…”

“…Chatbots can be used as an AI-based recruitment tool, which is utilised to interact with the candidates to facilitate the recruitment process (Kulkarni & Che, 2019). It is noteworthy that chatbots do not act just as an employees' serving tool but enhance learning by changing the perspective from 'organising' knowledge and expertise of employees to 'servicing' them (Flanagan & Walker, 2021). Minimizing the cost and Job displacement will always be a motive for the employer to invest in AI (Upchurch, 2018).…”