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We're delighted today to be publishing new research from the our Nuffield-funded Pissarides Review, and our partnership with Digit, showing the central importance of investing in institutional structures such as HR policies and worker voice – as it is these things that shape whether new technologies such as AI reduced barriers to mobility, and raise pay – especially for those on the lowest wages.
As AI and other workplace technologies rapidly reshape the UK labour market, the connecting narrative of these three shows that the future of work is not technologically predetermined - and that institutions are the decisive factor in whether innovation delivers shared prosperity or entrenches inequality.
Launching today – with a midday webinar event - these three new research papers reveal:
• Labour market “frictions” are widespread, limiting people’s ability to move jobs, progress, or adapt — with geography and time constraints among the most common barriers. Read the paper, 'How do labour market frictions affect employees in the UK?' here.
• Workplace technology affects wellbeing and job quality in very different ways depending on HR practices — with employee-centred HR environments linked to better outcomes for workers, while emerging technologies can erode job security even in supportive settings. Read the paper, 'To help or to hinder? An examination of how HR policies can support individuals using new technologies in the workplace' here.
• AI adoption is associated with higher pay, with the largest relative gains for lower-qualified and lower-paid workers — but only when AI is widely used and workers are involved in decision-making. This work has been jointly produced in partnership with the ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work (Digit). Read the Briefing Paper, 'Artificial intelligence and employee pay in the United Kingdom: novel evidence and policy implications' here.
Together, the findings point to an urgent policy and employer challenge: the UK’s technological transition will only be fair if, through better regulation, governance and incentives, firms are supported to develop practices that will lead to mobility, job quality and shared gains.
The first paper, How do labour market frictions affect employees in the UK?, offers the first individual-level measure of labour market frictions among UK employees, based on survey data from over 4,000 employees.
It finds that frictions — barriers that stop people from moving, adapting or progressing at work — are common but unevenly distributed.
The most frequently reported frictions are:
While many workers experience modest levels of friction, barriers accumulate unevenly, with the strongest impacts on lower-paid workers and those with longer job tenure.
The research also finds that organisational factors matter strongly: employee-centred HR practices, training provision, and representative structures (including unions) are associated with significantly lower frictions.
The second paper, To help or to hinder? An examination of how HR policies can support individuals using new technologies in the workplace, examines how different technologies interact with organisational context, using survey data from 4,853 UK employees.
The paper finds that digital ICTs are often associated with improved job quality and quality of life, particularly around flexibility, learning and autonomy — but that these benefits are strengthened when HR environments are employee-centred.
In contrast, the paper finds that newer technologies — including AI and machine learning tools, wearables and robotics — can be associated with declines in job security and wellbeing, and that employee-centred HR practices do not yet reliably offset these risks.
The research underlines a clear conclusion: technology outcomes depend on organisational choices, and workplaces need governance, voice and training structures that keep pace with adoption.
The third paper, Artificial intelligence and employee pay in the United Kingdom: novel evidence and policy implications, is a policy briefing based on new peer-reviewed research, analyses how AI affects pay in the UK using matched employer–employee data covering over 2,000 employers and more than 5,400 workers.
It finds that:
The paper argues that a fair AI transition requires proactive policy: worker consultation, transparency and training must be built into the UK’s AI governance approach.
Across the three publications, IFOW’s researchers emphasise a consistent theme: institutions — from HR policies and training systems to worker voice structures — determine whether technology enables good work or deepens inequality.
Reducing frictions, improving job quality and sharing the gains from AI all depend on how work is organised — and whether workers are included in shaping change.
We hope that you enjoy reading this new research. Alongside the webinar today, we'll be working to disseminate findings and implications focused on how these innovative new technologies can be deployed in ways that promote good work, and a flourishing society.
