Digital Dialogues

Shaping the digital transformation of work

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Digital Dialogues

Shaping the digital transformation of work

Digital Dialogues
This digital report presents findings from the Digital Futures at Work Research Centre's five-year programme of research, between 2020 and 2024.

These important findings must be addressed to drive a positive future of work

Peter Cheese, Chief Executive CIPD

The world of work is changing rapidly. Driven by social and political change, accelerated through crises such as the pandemic, but perhaps most of all by advances in automation, technology and AI. 

This digital transformation has been characterised as the fourth industrial revolution, as the lines between physical, digital, and biological worlds increasingly blur, impacting how we work, learn, transact our lives and connect with others. 

While much has been said of the potential benefits to business in terms of productivity, customer service, and innovation, there are many challenges. The Digit programme aims to provide robust, empirical evidence to highlight the key challenges facing governments, businesses, trade unions, civil society organisations, and workers directly.

This report highlights Digit’s work to date and paints a worrying picture of a UK digital ecosystem which is fragmented, and application that is very inconsistent and lags other countries. Furthermore, it points to growing inequalities in digital skills and rewards, and more broadly to the unequal impact on opportunities for good jobs and healthy working lives which not only persist but could get worse. 

These are hugely important findings which need to be understood and addressed to ensure we are driving a positive future of work. Economic growth is important to all of us, and digital transformation is arguably the most important key to driving growth and competitiveness, but it cannot be done without engaging and supporting people, and creating better jobs and fairness of opportunity.

Building on this context, this report focuses on three of the biggest questions relating to the digital transformation of work – the nature and extent of digital adoption, changes to employment contracts and ways of working, and digital inclusion. Understanding of each of these needs clear insights and guidance, to improve uptake and adoption while also understanding implications for jobs and employment, and ensuring fairness and inclusion.

We need to work together to shape the future that benefits us all, ensuring a just transition and a sustainable future for people, organisations, our economies, and for society. This report provides evidence and insights of the critical work that lies ahead.

1. Digital adoption is still patchy

Policy makers should continue to track adoption and its impacts closely to inform strategic policy development. Identifying how tailored support for specific sectors and SMEs can drive responsible investment in digital technologies, as part of a coordinated industrial strategy for economic growth, is essential. 

2. Investment in digital skills and literacy gaps is low

A new, coordinated strategy is required to understand the extent and range of the digital skills gaps across the occupational spectrum to enable an upgrading of skills and digital literacy. 

3. Experimental employment contracts are disrupting established business models

A new deal for working people should more clearly address the digital transformation of work to navigate the uncertainties and minimise negative impacts on working lives arising from technological change.  

4. Many people are excluded by the digitalisation of work and employment services due to lack of resources, capacity or knowledge

Countries at the vanguard of successful digitalisation have taken inclusion seriously, with coordinated strategies and accountability. Better monitoring to understand the multifaceted nature of digital exclusion will be needed, along with policies to mitigate negative consequences for some groups.

5. Workers are not being systematically consulted on the use of new technologies, but consultation can benefit firms

Firms should consider how improving ‘digital dialogues’ through worker consultation can help them to maximise the benefits of new technologies—and the potential for new ways of working to enhance productivity and wellbeing.

Adoption is still patchy with variation by sector and firm size

Digit’s research on digital adoption in the UK draws from a large, nationally representative survey of employers and cases studies of developments in key industrial sectors and organisations.

The Digit Employers’ Digital Practices at Work Survey reveals that digital adoption remains fragmented with uneven levels of transformation. Across the UK as a whole,
levels of investment in advanced digital technologies, including AI, remain low, with emerging digital divisions between firms that adopt and firms that do not. 

While there is little evidence to associate digital investment with large scale-job losses, employers do seem to be struggling to meet new digital skills demands. Where adoption is taking place, it is moving at different speeds across sectors and companies. It is often experimental, affecting the organisation and management of work, and employees’ experiences. This presents new challenges, both for managers and their trust in the efficacy of new digital innovations, and for workers in terms of new job and skills demands. 

Research by: Mark Stuart, Danat Valizade, Felix Schulz, Brendan Burchell, Richard Dickens, Jacqueline O’Reilly

Use of new digital technologies at work is not yet widespread and smaller firms may get left behind

Digit’s Employers’ Digital Practices at Work Survey explored how widely different digital technologies, including new AI-enabled technologies, were being used, and what they were being used for. We surveyed 2,000 UK employers in 2022 and 1,000 in 2023 and found that only a little over a third (36%) of employers had invested in new technologies in the previous five years. Levels of investment varied significantly across different industrial sectors. There was little evidence that employers were systematically or strategically investing in generative AI. 

Strikingly, only 10 per cent of those who had not invested planned to do so soon in the immediate future. There is a risk that, as early adopters increase investment in new technologies, more reluctant organisations, often smaller businesses, will fall behind. Policy makers will need to track adoption carefully and consider what policy interventions may be needed to increase opportunities for investment, ensuring the public and private sectors can harness the benefits more widely. 


Digital adoption has not yet led to widespread job loss

The Employers’ Digital Practices at Work Survey also challenges the assumption that investment in digital technologies will inevitably lead to catastrophic job loss. Indeed, the opposite seems to be the case. Those employers that had invested in digital technologies were more likely to report that they had expanded their workforce and were more confident about employment growth in the future.

The survey found that net job loss was evident in just four per cent of employers. Policy makers need to understand what new jobs are being created, how existing jobs are changing because of digital investment and what the implications of this are for employers’ skills demand.  

Employers report digital skills shortages but are not investing in training

Just over half of digital adopters reported that investment in new digital technologies created a demand for new skills. Yet, finding employees with the right digital skills is a significant problem for employers. Three quarters of employers reported difficulty finding employees with the required digital skills and, at the same time, almost a third reported difficulties in retaining staff.

Despite this, few employers are investing in formal training or plan to do so, although there is more evidence of informal, on-the-job training. Policy makers will face particular challenges around the new digital skills agenda, which will need to address both the supply side and the demand side.


Workers are not being consulted on investment in new technologies

Technology investment was the area of organisational decision making on which staff were least likely to be consulted. Only a quarter of employers consulted or negotiated with workers about investment in new technologies. Half of those surveyed did not involve workers in decisions about technology investment at all.

Organisations should consider whether increasing workers’ involvement could lead to better decision making about technology. Our research on the four-day week, for example, shows that involving workers in redesigning working practices was a key factor in improving or maintaining productivity while reducing time at work.

Digit employers’ survey of digital practices at work: key findings

Larger firms lead in digital adoption

Larger firms are more likely to invest in digital technologies, with 62% of these adopters planning to increase their investments. There’s a risk of smaller firms being left behind.

Investment in new digital technologies by employer size (%)

Investment in new digital technologies by employer size

Investment varies by sector

Investment varies by sector
Investment varies by sector

Motivations for digital investment

The extent of adoption of digital technologies at work in the UK

There are training gaps despite digital adoption

There are training gaps despite digital adoption

Although digital adopters provide more training than 
non-adopters, levels are still low.
Source: Digital adopters, n=790; Non-adopters, n=1153

Digital adopters anticipate greater job creation than non-investors in the next five years

Digital adopters anticipate greater job creation than non-investors in the next five years

Source: Digital adopters, n=790; Non-adopters, n=1,153

It’s hard for employers to find people with the right skills

It's hard for employers to find people with the right skills

Source: all employers, n=2001

Research by: Esme Terry, Wil Hunt, Steve Rolf, Mark Stuart, Jacqueline O’Reilly

“On the one hand, I’m better able to manage my workload because many tasks are automated. On a more negative note, there has been a stark increase in work intensity.”

Financial services worker

Reinforcing findings from Digit’s Employers’ Digital Practices at Work Survey, in-depth case studies of AI adoption by UK firms show that new technologies are not necessarily being used to replace human workers. Instead, AI may be used to complement, augment and/or substitute human labour in different tasks, often in combination. 

Our research, carried out with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), examined what happens in organisations adopting AI-based technologies in the UK financial services and manufacturing sectors. Focussing on a single use-case in each organisation provided insight into the types of AI adopted, implementation processes, and associated outcomes for businesses, work and workers. 

The way AI technology was ultimately used was shaped by the various actors involved in the adoption process, including managers, developers and workers. There was evidence that those firms that actively engaged workers in ‘digital dialogues’ as new technologies were adopted were able to achieve more favourable business and workforce outcomes. For some, this meant a reduction in repetitive tasks and an upskilling of their current roles.

Research by: Steve Rolf

We analysed the use of AI and algorithmic management software in the European services industry, from offices and restaurants to contact centres, where it is being used to facilitate various managerial functions. In research with the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung and trade union UNI Europa, we examined two systems used for sales work (Salesforce and ActivTrak), and two for warehouse management (Infor and Blue Yonder).

We found the use of AI and algorithmic management software extends to recruitment and hiring, training and development, task allocation and scheduling, and performance management and productivity-tracking. These systems can help managers exert granular control over individuals and teams through the algorithmic generation of performance metrics and recommendations for managerial action, including dismissal.

For example, Salesforce gathers metrics on sales workers, including on sales performance, contact with clients, neglected accounts and others. It also integrates with third-party software like ActivTrak to create detailed user activity logs (e.g. ‘using printer’, ‘using social media’, and ‘inactive’). This generates ‘productivity scores’ for individual workers which managers use to target underperforming workers for further training or dismissal.

The increasing use of these systems poses many risks for workers, including around surveillance, intensification of work, knowledge imbalances between workers and managers, and decisions being made without sufficient oversight of the consequences.

Our research points to the need for trade unions to focus on effective collective bargaining and ‘digital dialogues’ over the introduction of such technologies. This includes conducting audits of existing technology uses; input into purchasing and implementation; and ongoing monitoring, feedback, adjustments including, if needed, intervention into the operations of new AI and algorithmic management technologies. 

Research by: Dimitrinka Stoyanova Russell, Ödül Bozkurt, Christopher Russell, Dan Wallman

As Generative AI tools become widely available, we investigated the uptake and impact of Generative AI in 38 digital micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Greater Brighton region. 

We found that a range of generative AI tools, but especially ChatGPT, are now being widely used by these digital SMEs, transforming a range of tasks. Generative AI is used in writing tasks for idea generation, drafting, editing and tailoring content to specific audiences, and in coding work, for code generation, debugging, optimisation and collaboration. In the production of audio/visual materials it is being used in concept development, production automation and visual enhancement. Some firms were using tools to automate processes, while others used Generative AI to ‘pivot’ their work from one sector to another.

In these firms, Generative AI is interacting with workers’ existing skills in three key ways. First, acting as a ‘prosthesis’ by enhancing workers’ abilities; second, as a ‘skeleton’ by building on foundational knowledge; and third, through ‘cloning’ (i.e. replicating skills to increase productivity). 

Expanding the capacity of highly skilled workers by automating routine tasks in these SMEs can enable scaling up—but some use remains experimental. There were concerns that the use of Generative AI may reduce opportunities for early career workers as these entry level tasks are automated. 

Technology adoption is leading to experimentation and fragmentation of working norms and employment contracts

Digit’s research exploring the changing nature of the employment contract and new ways of working draws on a unique, longitudinal dataset of labour laws around the world. We have also conducted a series of projects that examine the challenges faced by those working in the platform sector and explored key examples of experimentation in working practices.

Our research identifies some of the myriad factors that have coalesced to threaten the basis of the traditional employment contract and well-defined employment relations. However, we also find compelling evidence of new responses with the potential to benefit both companies and workers. 

While those working in the platform sector are typically denied vital work and social protections, workers are increasingly confronting platform companies and protesting for improvements in pay and conditions and the right for a voice at work. This is leading to new negotiated settlements between workers and unions, and in many countries the assimilation of platform workers’ rights into more established employment protections. Our analysis of labour law changes around the world since the 1970s shows that, on average, increased legal protection for workers has positive effects on employment and productivity.

There is also evidence of more innovative forms of experimentation about when, where and how people work. This includes forms of agile working in the NHS and high-profile trials of the four-day working week, with benefits for both corporate interests and the wellbeing of workers. Effective dialogue between employers and workers is a key factor in the success of such workplace experimentation.

Research by: Simon Deakin, Kamelia Pourkermani, Bhumika Billa, Louise Bishop

There are long running debates about whether worker protections in law can end up harming both workers and the economy. The Cambridge Centre for Business Research (CBR) Labour Regulation Index provides a way to measure and compare the relative strength of labour laws, between countries and over time. The CBR Labour Regulation Index has been updated to cover the labour laws of 117 countries over the past 50 years, between 1970 and 2022, including the evolution of protections for platform workers. 

Stronger labour protection can have positive economic effects

Our research contributes new evidence to support a shifting consensus that improving workers’ rights can be good for the wider economy. Econometric analysis using our dataset shows that stronger labour protections in the UK over the past fifty years are, on average, associated with higher employment and lower unemployment. In addition, particular types of labour laws, including those regulating flexible working, working time, and employee representation, can have positive productivity effects. Across our overall sample of 117 countries, improvements in labour rights are generally associated with rising productivity and a higher labour share of national income.

Analysis carried out for the TUC also shows that UK labour laws are significantly less protective of workers’ rights than the OECD average (see Figure 1), particularly with respect to laws on working time, employee representation, and the right to strike. 

Labour laws can provide better protection for platform workers

Longstanding debates about how workers should be protected in law are brought into renewed focus over platform workers’ rights. The emergence of new forms of digitally-enabled gig-work—and other forms of ‘flexible’ but insecure jobs—threatens to take many people outside of the traditionally understood employment contract, with its ‘9 to 5’ workplace and associated rights and protections. It has been contended that these new forms of work were beyond labour regulation. Our new Platform Regulation Index, however, offers evidence that labour laws around the world are adapting to these changes. In many countries, platform work is increasingly being assimilated to the rules governing regular employment.

In the UK, for example, the ruling of the UK Supreme Court (UKSC) in the Uber case (2019) marks a significant development, aligning platform work with the ‘worker’ category of protected status. Similar rulings have occurred in several other developed and developing countries. The UKSC’s later and more restrictive ruling in Deliveroo (2023), that delivery riders were not entitled to seek recognition for collective bargaining, is out of line with this global trend. The issue of employment status is currently being reviewed by the UK government as part of its wider programme for ‘making work pay’. Our data can inform options for improving the legal governance of different types of platform, precarious and insecure work.


FIGURE 1: UK workers’ rights lag behind other OECD countries

Research by: Steve Rolf, Rachel Verdin, Wil Hunt

The rapid growth of quick-commerce (Q-commerce) start-ups during the pandemic disrupted the online grocery market and is continuing to evolve. These start-ups promised super-fast delivery times measured in minutes rather than hours. More locally based ‘dark stores’, not open to the public, or micro fulfilment centres were established purely for online shopping.

Unlike similar delivery jobs on retail platforms, workers in Q-commerce were often directly employed by firms. The jobs, however, were still very precarious. Financial instability of firms led to increasing work intensity, reduced job security, and heightened risks for employees. 

Since the pandemic, tightening funding streams have resulted in most Q-commerce start-ups exiting European markets. The few that remain have diversified product delivery to ensure survival. Established retailers and existing delivery platforms have pivoted to capture this emerging market of rapid delivery, but have moved from direct employment to a self-employed model while working across many different employment law jurisdictions. 

There are signs that collective action and legislation can help to improve work within the sector. In Spain, traditional unions have achieved some success in recruiting and organising delivery workers. These efforts have been assisted by the Spanish Rider’s Law, establishing a legal presumption of employment alongside stipulations for greater algorithmic transparency. While the European Trade Union Confederation proposes its extension across the EU, in Spain this has also encountered patchy compliance—and in some cases, protest by employer-supported unions.

Research by:  David Hesmondhalgh

While streaming services give many more musicians access to an audience, it remains very challenging to earn a reliable income. In a report for the UK Intellectual Property Office on music creators’ earnings in the digital era, we showed the complex impact of streaming on musicians’ earnings.

Average per-stream rates fell between 2012 and 2019. At the same time, earnings from recording rights remained relatively stable in real terms between 2008 and 2019 for UK-based performers and studio producers. The earnings that composers and lyricists gained from music publishing rights increased by 11% in the same period (accounting for inflation), though arguably from a very low historical base. 

However, popularity on streaming platforms remains highly concentrated on a small number of artists. Between 2014 and 2020, the number of artists achieving at least one UK stream in a sample month doubled from around 200,000 to 400,000. However, the top one per cent of tracks gained 75-80 per cent of all streams and the top one per cent of artists gained 78-80 per cent of all streams.

Our subsequent review of research for the UK government’s Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation also examined the impact of automated music recommendation systems (or ‘algorithms’) on music production and consumption. This highlighted gender biases against women and that algorithms further reinforce the popularity of the most successful artists.

A system whereby consumers pay either nothing for the music they stream via advertising-supported platforms, or very little if subscribing, is unlikely to be able to reward musicians better.

Research by: Stephanie Garrison and Claire Wallace

Digital content creators have become central to tourist industry marketing strategies. Increasing numbers of people are turning to platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Patreon to work as paid content creators. 

Through interviews with travel content creators and key tourism body representatives, we examined creators’ connections with existing industry institutions. We found that many face precarious employment, with a mix of unstable income streams and self-employment risks. Their roles often blur work and leisure, requiring self-promotion, networking, and constant social media engagement that blends personal and professional identities, offering both opportunities and risk of exploitation.

Content creators see themselves as independent artists rather than gig economy workers or influencers. However, they must navigate a complex and uncertain landscape of clients, travel destinations, travel companies and followers to make a living. This means that their income is precarious, their contracts are precarious (if they have a contract) and their legislative and visa situation is often ambiguous, working across the boundaries between the informal and formal economy. In the absence of collective organisations, content creators may develop their own informal advice networks through such media as WhatsApp groups to manage their contracts and negotiations.

Research by: Ayomikun Idowu, Monica Richards, Akustina Morni, Jacqueline O’Reilly

Digital retail platforms such as Depop offer new opportunities for young people to develop entrepreneurship skills, providing sustainable and formal income streams for some. However, success and income depend on the seller’s degree of engagement in terms of time and resource commitment. 

In Nigeria, students make themselves economically independent while they study and plan to scale up after graduation; others have moved into selling full-time. In the UK, only those who can break through as ‘top sellers’ feel it is sustainable. Others see it as a part-time role and a way to supplement their income, lacking the confidence to transition to a full-time role without a guaranteed income.

As with travel content creators, there was evidence that retail platforms were one part of a wider entrepreneurial ecosystem that extends to personalised messaging apps like Instagram and WhatsApp. Also, the boundaries between the personal and public personas of the sellers involved risked becoming blurred.

In Nigeria and the UK, young people’s involvement with digital platforms offers the opportunity to acquire new skills (e.g. business, core work, and socio-emotional skills), develop existing ones and pursue personal growth. Some of the business skills they developed include marketing, budgeting/accountancy, international logistics, problem solving and customer service. Some of these skills were supported by the platforms, and others they learned independently.

Research by: Mark Stuart, Simon Joyce, Charles Umney, Vera Trappmann, Ioulia Bessa, Denis Neumann

Given their often precarious contract status and lack of social protections, it is not surprising that platform workers around the world have sought to protest for better working conditions. The Leeds Index of Platform Labour Protest tracks strikes, demonstrations, legal action and other forms of protest by workers in the platform economy around the world. Our research has so far logged almost 2,000 protests since 2017, offering vital insight into workers’ demands for better treatment in new forms of online work.

Platform companies often claim that workers are happy with the kind of employment flexibility they offer. However, despite predictions that worker organisation would be impossible in this sector, our evidence suggests that protest is increasing. In most global regions, protests take the form of strikes, logoffs and demonstrations. Ride-hailing and the food delivery sectors account for most protest events.

Low pay is the top cause of protest globally for platform workers, followed by employment status and health and safety. A third of all protests in Europe are about employment status. 

Protests have been mainly self-organised, although in some regions established trade unions are beginning to play a more formal role. Some platform workers are organised in traditional unions – most commonly in parts of Europe – but there has also been a growth of new grass roots union actions. Other platform workers, notably in the global South, organise informally in ad hoc groups drawn together around specific grievances or mobilise via worker collectives. 

The spread of platform workers’ protests raises issues for traditional worker organisations, such as trade unions and policy makers concerned with labour market enforcement. Key challenges relate to how the voices and concerns of these workers can be incorporated into meaningful bargaining arrangements with companies and in wider
policy debates. 

“ITF has long argued for workers to be involved in the introduction of new technology, so this report’s insight into the benefits of ‘digital dialogue’ for both workers and employers is very welcome. The new data on adoption, jobs and skills impacts are important contributions for the discussion around future collective bargaining, policy development and labour market reform. Our experience with organising the platform sector and dealing with tech in other sectors shows the importance of collective bargaining on tech, so we hope that this report will encourage a renewed commitment to dialogue as the solution to the challenges of the digital transition to the benefit of all.”

Baker Khundakji, International Transport Workers Federation Youth and Future of Work Officer

FIGURE 3: Protest is growing in the platform economy

Research by: Emma Russell

Agile working is a form of flexible working that can support organisation and worker needs regarding when, where and how people work, often using digital tools to support adaptations. Our work with the NHS, as part of a long running research-practitioner collaboration agiLab, shows benefits for service delivery and employee wellbeing.

Our agiLab research has explored how different groups experience agile working (including lower socio-economic status workers), agile leadership and how to reduce tensions between staff over different agile working arrangements. 

This work highlights four important principles for successful agile working. First, remove arbitrary restrictions, enabling more flexible responses to changing organisational and worker needs. Second, consult workers, encouraging an ongoing, open dialogue between workers and employers in which everyone’s voice is heard. Third, try things out, ensuring that work and digital boundaries are respected; seek input to design work appropriately and keep things under review. And, fourth, support managers to get to know their team and provide them with tools, training and resources to support agile work.

Research by: Brendan Burchell and David Frayne

Trials of the four-day week show benefits for workers and organisations. We conducted qualitative research as part of a major business-led trial of the four-day week in collaboration with the 4 Day Week Campaign. Sixty-one companies and approximately 2,900 employees participated in the trial.

The trial found that companies’ revenue stayed broadly the same and there were significant benefits for employee wellbeing: 39 per cent of employees were less stressed and 71 per cent had reduced levels of burnout at the end of the trial. One year-on, 89 per cent of companies continued to operate a four-day week and 51 per cent had made it permanent.

Worker consultation was critical to the trial’s success. With specialist guidance, managers and employees have collaborated to agree better ways of working, suited to their context. Typical changes have entailed shorter and smaller meetings, ‘do not disturb’ times during the day for focussed work, and improved communications by adopting new digital technologies. New technologies enabled shifts to asynchronous communications, such as ordering through a website rather than by phone, and the use of ChatGPT in writing product descriptions.

A major factor in the success of these changes was that workers were highly motivated to identify ways to work smarter, as the rewards of doing so were shared by employees, owners and shareholders. Further trials, including the successful South Cambridgeshire District Council four-day week trial, are providing a growing evidence base for policy makers and organisations about the role of reduced working time in relation to digital adoption and the transformation of work.

This research won the prize for Outstanding Business and Enterprise Impact at the 2024 ESRC Celebrating Impact Prize.

Digital exclusion is exacerbating and creating new forms of inequality

New technologies may change how existing jobs are performed, create entirely new jobs and replace others, requiring people at all levels to develop new digital literacy skills. Yet, digital inclusion remains an ongoing problem that affects many people, particularly those on the periphery of the labour market and the disabled. Technological ‘solutions’ will not simply entail ‘connecting the disconnected’. A wider understanding is needed that considers the role of community and human support networks, the extent to which people are included or excluded, their experiences of multiple forms of inequality, and their values and agency.

Digitalisation may also exacerbate existing inequalities as its effects are unequally experienced. Women and others with more caring responsibilities, less economic resources, or from minority backgrounds are more likely to feel their time is ‘pinched’. ‘Digital by default’ welfare policies present significant hurdles to those with low access to devices and low levels of digital literacy looking for work. In turn, these hurdles diminish the effective functioning of the UK labour market ecosystem to support skill attainment and improve productivity. Our research comparing the digitalisation of welfare services across Europe highlights that the UK’s current approach to digital transformation is fragmented, requiring greater focus on inclusion.

Finally, there is also evidence that employers have a critical role to play in how they adopt digital so as to build inclusionary ways of flexible and agile working to the benefit of women, disabled people and ethnic minorities.

Research by: Jacqueline O’Reilly, Rachel Verdin, Ann McDonnell

The Employers’ Digital Practices at Work Survey shows that, as a sector, UK public administration is a leading investor in digital technologies. This digitalisation in the public sector will significantly reshape the new digital work ecosystem through which people seek work, or access support with training and benefits.

We compared the effectiveness of the UK’s ongoing digital transition with six EU countries and South Korea, examining the extent and impacts of digitalisation of public services and infrastructure on inclusion. Our findings highlight the importance of understanding digital adoption in the public sector as part of a wider ‘digital work and welfare ecosystem’. In this ecosystem, effective interactions and partnerships between key government, business, civil society and trade union actors are key.

The UK’s digital work ecosystem is fragmented

We identified three types of digital work and welfare ecosystems in Europe: synergistic, uneven and fragmented. More advanced and successful digital transformations (e.g. Norway and Estonia) are characterised by high levels of synergy between government, business and civil society actors. Countries with more uneven and poorly coordinated development lag behind (e.g. Hungary and Italy). In the UK, Germany and Spain, the digital work and welfare ecosystem, while more advanced, is currently quite fragmented for different reasons.

In the UK, the synergy between key government, business and community actors required to achieve an inclusive digital transformation of work and welfare is currently lacking. This fragmentation can negatively affect both the successful roll out of digital public services and the potential quality of jobs available. There is a need to more effectively coordinate dialogue between the key actors from government, business and civil society to develop a new, inclusive ‘digital work and welfare ecosystem’. This will be essential to meet the Government’s ambition to harness the opportunities of AI to drive growth and create good quality jobs.

FIGURE 4: The digital work and welfare ecosystem is shaped by the digital dialogues, or the absence of dialogue, between key actors

Research by: Becky Faith and Kevin Hernandez

As digital access, skills and knowledge become increasingly essential to working life, our research highlights the need to better understand and measure digital exclusion. The current binary understanding of the ‘digital divide’ between those who are or are not connected obscures the issues of who is, or is not, included, and what ‘limited internet users’ experience. While official statistics produce headline measures showing that around 96% of people are ‘online’, this means only that they have accessed the internet once in the past three months.

Our research shows that ‘limited users’ face many barriers to inclusion in a digitalised world, including issues of data poverty, a reliance on smart phones for complex tasks, limited access to shared devices, and reliance on others to perform digital tasks. It is the quality of online access and resources that determines the extent to which citizens and workers can access digital resources for work and home life. 

It is also evident that digital exclusion is not a problem confined to older people. Many younger and poorer people may have mobile or tablet-only access to the internet. Socio-economic inequalities are closely linked to poor and limited connectivity (or data allowance) that is insufficient to: build work-relevant digital skills; provide access to essential services; enable online job applications; or allow children to complete their homework effectively. 

As governments seek to drive efficiency and growth by further digitalisation and the use of AI in the public sector, these findings highlight the need to consider the many different and interconnected ways that people may be digitally excluded—and the resulting social and economic barriers to accessing decent, reliable and well remunerated work.

Research by: Rachel Verdin and Jacqueline O’Reilly

Existing gender inequalities may be exacerbated by the digitalisation of work as it drives changes to available jobs, skills-needs and new working arrangements, with different impacts on men and women. Given the rapid speed of technological innovation, policy makers will need to ensure gendered impacts are tracked and addressed with targeted efforts to avoid deepening existing inequalities.

Our research identifies some key challenges. Firstly, the changing composition of jobs in the labour market may increase pay inequalities. While some lower skilled jobs might be easier to automate, commonly female-dominated personalised but low-paid jobs, such as care work, are likely to increase. However, the parallel growth in high skill fields such as STEM and ICT may magnify gender pay gaps and occupational segregation. 

Secondly, embedded stereotypes and bias in data, AI and new technologies may further disadvantage women and other groups. Finally, the flexibility afforded by new forms of online or digitalised work may be disproportionately taken up by women, with negative impacts on earnings and social protection. New legislative approaches are needed to offset emerging gaps in provision to ensure employment protection is still sufficient, with a specific understanding of the implications for women and their families.

Research by: Jill Rubery, Debra Howcroft, Emma Banister, Laura Jarvis-King, Isabel Távora

The use of digital technologies, including to facilitate remote working, has expanded following the Covid pandemic. We examined the implications of this for inclusion through in-depth case studies of digital working practices in professional services at an IT and a law firm.

Within organisations, digital technologies can be used to build inclusionary ways of working that particularly benefit women, disabled people and ethnic minorities. Workers from these groups benefited from increased flexibility and autonomy over where, when and how they work. Digital technologies, also facilitated increased access to colleagues and systems, helping to flatten hierarchies. For some, access to training through digital platforms was also beneficial.

However, digitalised working also had downsides. It could lead to the erosion of boundaries between work and home life, exacerbated by increased availability and lack of clear expectations. For managers in particular, digitalised working could increase work intensity through an increased volume of communications from staff and clients. Remote working also posed challenges for networking and relationship building.

These findings suggest that digital inclusion is not only a policy issue, but also a question for firms. As new digitalised working practices are adopted, firms should consider the impacts on different groups and how digital connectivity policies and guidelines can support inclusion goals.

Research by: Francesca Sobande, Anamik Saha, David Hesmondhalgh

Black, Brown and Asian people (‘creators of colour’) seeking to enter the British cultural and creative industries (CCIs) may face additional pressures in seeking to make use of new digital platforms to establish themselves.

Our research explored how ‘creators of colour’ are using digital platforms to produce and circulate acts of creativity with goals of paid work, reaching new audiences and combating racism and interconnected oppressions.

We found that to gain exposure that might benefit their careers, creators of colour feel under pressure to self-brand online. In doing so they are expected to present themselves as ‘professional’ in ways that are palatable to the institutionally white gaze of the established CCIs.

Digital platforms also play an important role in forms of community-building and solidarity between ‘creators of colour’. However, their limited capacity to mitigate online racism and interconnected harms acts as a constraint on their value for this type of activity. 

Nonetheless, ‘creators of colour’ can make use of digital platforms in ways that influence how the industry ‘reckons with racism’. This includes providing a platform to highlight inequalities within the CCIs. 

Research by: Christine Grant, Carlo Tramontano, Maria Charalampous, Carl Clarke, Emma Russell

Disabled and/or neurodivergent people make up 20 per cent of the working population but are more likely to be unemployed than people who are not disabled. Remote working offers one way for disabled and neurodivergent people to access and sustain work in ways that also meet their needs.

Our research found that employers need to be flexible to optimise wellbeing and productivity. Listening to employees and understanding their unique requirements is essential in making remote work accessible and effective for everyone. Remote working needs to be well-managed and line managers need support and training to do this effectively, particularly for this group of workers whose needs could be misunderstood.

We found that negative statements about remote working from policy makers and business leaders can inhibit disabled and/or neurodivergent workers from asking for what they need – and in turn prevent them from working in the most effective way to benefit their organisations. Employers who provided flexible and supportive options to work helped to reduce the stigma that had previously been attached to remote working, and thus levelled the playing field and supported this group of workers to flourish.

Effective, inclusive organisational policies for remote working should provide clear guidelines for reasonable adjustments, prioritising accessibility, usability, and technological optimisation to meet diverse needs.

Research by: Daiga Kamerāde, Andrew Clarke, Christine Parker, Cristina Vasilia, Christine Goodall

Digital volunteering offers many benefits for disabled adults. However, digital divisions persist between disabled and non-disabled adults: nearly one million disabled people do not have internet access at home, and about two million do not own a smart phone or computer. 

Additional barriers to online volunteering included inadequate or malfunctioning assistive devices, over-reliance on technology to access organisations, and assumptions about levels of digital skills and accessibility.

These challenges limit the ability of disabled adults to participate in both online and offline volunteering. Online volunteering itself can increase accessibility, but also presents new challenges, such as inadequate human connection or lack of in-person support.

We also found that, while volunteering might be expected to provide a path to employment, employment also helps disabled people overcome digital barriers to volunteering. The confidence, skills, resources and social connections acquired through paid employment helped people to navigate some of the digital barriers to securing volunteering roles.

Organisations can take steps to reduce digital exclusion for disabled adults, including person-centred approaches; varied communication channels; digital skills training; integrating assistive technologies; and fostering a supportive organisational culture that prioritises empathy around individual needs.

Digital dialogues transforming work

Since 2020 our research has investigated how the digital transformation of work is unfolding in practice, in contrast with the hype and speculation of polarised narratives. We observe and experience digital technologies developing at pace, including the growing importance of generative AI. The insights from the evidence presented here highlight key challenges relating to digital adoption, changing employment contracts and digital inclusion.

Our research shows considerable variation between adoption rates across sectors and firms of different sizes. There is also a clear mismatch between the digital skills employers struggle to find and the level to which they currently invest in training. Achieving and developing the necessary levels of digital literacy for the modern workplace will become an ongoing challenge for us all and should be part of a coordinated industrial strategy for economic growth.

Experimentation with digital technologies, employment contracts and new business models is having both positive and negative impacts. Keeping up with rapid changes in evolving markets is a challenge for policy makers and regulators, employers and unions in navigating the uncertainties and negative impacts on working lives arising from technological change. 

Inclusive technology can be used to support new ways of working. This can benefit both worker wellbeing and organisational outcomes as evidenced by experiments with the four-day week and agile working; it can also become a way to include a more diverse labour force.

Our survey of employers shows that workers are not being systematically consulted on corporate investment in new technologies. This suggests that some firms are failing to build the trust needed, or missing out on good ideas about how to make the most of these investments. 

Many people lack the resources, capacity or knowledge to navigate a new digital ecosystem of work and welfare. These are not only the highly-paid digital skills needed for ‘jobs of the future’ but also the basic level of access and knowledge needed to fill in digital job applications. Digital exclusion may also exacerbate existing gender, race, disability and socio-economic related inequalities. 

Responding to the key challenges we identify will demand effective, well-coordinated partnerships and ‘digital dialogues’ between key stakeholders to drive improvements. Questions about how to accelerate responsible adoption of technology in public and private sectors should go hand in hand with questions about how to harness technology to improve people’s everyday working lives. Our research shows that giving workers a voice can help to realise and share the benefits of technology at work.

Future research agenda

From January 2025 we begin a new phase of research that explores the role of key actors in shaping the emerging digital work ecosystem. We know that the UK digital ecosystem is fragmented; employers’ investment in digital technologies is poor; inequalities in digital skills and rewards are increasing; access to healthy working lives is polarised; regional inequalities in good jobs persist; and the environmental effects of digitalisation are poorly understood.

Our new research programme will address these key themes:

4.Healthy working lives:
How does digitalisation affect a healthy work-life balance and access to work?

5.Changing locations of work and environmental impacts:
How will digitalisation at work and evolving digital infrastructures impact the location of jobs, and what consequences does this have for the environment?

Employers’ Digital Practices at Work Survey: First Findings

Mark Stuart, Danat Valizade, Felix Schulz, Brendan Burchell, Richard Dickens and Jacqueline O’Reilly (2023).

Lessons from the four-day week: Reducing working time in the digital transformation of work

Brendan Burchell, David Spencer, Simon Deakin and Jill Rubery (September 2024), Digit Policy Brief.

Delivering flexible working in practice: An agile approach

Emma Russell (October 2023), Digit Policy Brief.

Digital Poverty in the UK

Becky Faith, Kevin Hernandez, and James Beecher IDS Policy Briefing 202 (2022).

Better outcomes for everyone? The UK’s fragmented digital ecosystem of work and welfare

Jacqueline O’Reilly and Rachel Verdin (November 2023), Digit Policy Brief.

Measuring digital exclusion: Why what is counted is also what counts

Kevin Hernandez and Dr Becky Faith, Digit Data Commentary (2022).

The economic effects of changes in labour laws: New evidence for the UK

Simon Deakin and Kamelia Pourkermani (April 2024), Digit Policy Brief.

All Digit publications are available at www.digit-research.org/publications/

The Digital Futures at Work Research Centre is funded by the UKRI Economic and Social Research Council [ES/S012532/1], whose support is gratefully acknowledged. 

Thank you to everyone who has shaped our understanding of the digital transformation of work, from homeless and disconnected communities to senior government, business and trade union leaders. 

This report reflects the collective work of an outstanding community of researchers and professional services staff who have been part of the Digital Futures at Work Research Centre over the past five years:

Aditya Lal, Alex Mason, Andy Charlwood, Aniket Baksy, Ann McDonnell, Asiya Islam, Astrid Krenz, Becky Faith, Bhumika Billa, Brendan Burchell, Charles Umney, Charmaine Wellington, Chidiebere Ogbonnaya, Chris Forde, Claire Wallace, Constantin Blome, Corinna Hattersley, Danat Valizade, David Frayne, David Hesmondhalgh, David Spencer, Debra Howcroft, Denis Neumann, Dimitra Petrakaki, Emma Banister, Emma Hughes, Emma Russell, Esme Terry, Fang Lee Cooke, Felix Schulz, Gail Hebson, Gemma Smith, Ioulia Bessa, Isabel Tavora, Jacqueline O’Reilly, Jill Rubery, Jo Ingold, Kamelia Pourkemani, Kate Hardy, Katerina Antonopoulou, Kevin Hernandez, Laura Jarvis-King, Lorraine Mackenzie, Louise Bishop, Manhal Ali, Mark Stuart, Megan McMichael, Nachiappan Subramanian, Ödül Bozkurt, Rachel Verdin, Richard Dickens, Simon Deakin, Simon Joyce, Sophie Valeix, Stephanie Garrison, Steve Rolf, Tim Marsh and Wil Hunt.

Find out more about our research: digit-research.org

  • The Digital Futures at Work Research Centre (Digit) is funded by the UKRI Economic and Social Research Council [ES/S012532/1] to explore how digital technologies are changing work and the implications for employers, workers, job seekers and governments.

    The Centre is co-led by the University of Sussex Business School and Leeds University Business School, with partners at the Universities of Aberdeen, Cambridge, and Manchester, the Institute of Development Studies and the Institute for the Future of Work in the UK and Monash University in Australia. 

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University of Sussex University of Leeds
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University of Aberdeen University of Cambridge University of Manchester University of Monash Institute of Development Studies Institute For The Of Work