CAREER: Future of Generative Artificial Intelligence for Current and Future Workers

This CAREER project investigates how generative AI is reshaping the American workplace, focusing on its impacts on worker productivity, job satisfaction, and skill development. The proliferation of generative AI that can create text, images, audio, and video will affect a wide variety of jobs, including those that require years of education, extensive training, and creativity. As AI systems become increasingly integrated into everyday life, understanding their effects on the workforce is crucial for maintaining U.S. economic competitiveness. This project produces insights for decision makers and business leaders on effectively implementing AI technologies while supporting worker well-being. In addition, the research identifies potential challenges and opportunities in AI adoption, helping to guide workforce development programs, career counseling, and educational initiatives. This project investigates the views of workers and high school students toward generative AI, focusing on how these views influence their behavior as both workers and citizens. Three interconnected studies advance the literature in political economy and science and technology studies. Study 1 uses a two-wave panel survey of 1,500 workers to analyze how workers in different sectors of the economy, particularly knowledge workers, perceive the impacts of generative AI on job quality. Study 2 uses semi-structured interviews and an online deliberative workshop with 40 workers recruited through Study 1 to develop an in-depth understanding of workers’ perceptions of generative AI’s risks and opportunities. Building upon the previous two studies, Study 3 uses a two-wave panel study to understand how high school students navigate uncertainty around the future of work when deciding what additional schooling/training or career to pursue. The educational aspect of this project expands course offerings on AI and the future of work and creates a research collective that supports collaborations between students, postdocs, and faculty members. The public engagement component of this project involves organizing two pedagogy workshops that bring together career counselors, academics, and business leaders to produce educational resources, as well as disseminating research findings through public-facing reports, op-eds, and public events. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.