AI Impacting Employment: Microsoft and the largest labor union in the United States reach a historic cooperation to launch AI training

Facing the impact of the artificial intelligence (AI) technology boom on the talent market, Microsoft and the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), representing 12.5 million workers, have announced an unprecedented new partnership. On Monday, December 11th, Microsoft announced the establishment of a new partnership with AFL-CIO to foster open dialogue and discuss how AI can predict workers' needs and incorporate them into the development and implementation of AI. According to Microsoft's statement, this is the first collaboration between a labor organization and a technology company focused on AI. The partnership aims to achieve three major goals: sharing in-depth information about AI technology trends with labor leaders and workers, incorporating workers' perspectives and expertise into AI technology development, and helping shape public policies that support the technological skills and needs of frontline workers. Under the collaboration agreement, Microsoft and AFL-CIO will take three actions. One of them is to provide AI education for workers and students. Specifically, Microsoft will offer formal learning opportunities on the latest developments and future prospects of AI, providing labor leaders and workers with key information and insights into the future development of this new technology. The relevant educational courses will begin in the winter of next year and will be led by Microsoft's AI experts, who will provide information on how AI operates, its development direction, an overview of its opportunities, and an analysis of potential challenges. Microsoft will also listen to direct feedback from labor leaders and workers. To ensure that workers' expertise and perspectives are utilized by Microsoft's AI developers, Microsoft and AFL-CIO have developed a mechanism that allows labor leaders and workers to directly share their experiences, insights, concerns, and feedback with the developers. The collaboration will begin this winter in the form of a labor summit hosted by Microsoft. The third aspect of the partnership involves jointly proposing supportive policies as the US Congress discusses the future legislation on AI and the workforce. Microsoft and AFL-CIO will advocate for policies that provide workers with the necessary skills, knowledge, and economic support in an AI-driven economy. In addition, the agreement includes a template of neutral terms, which follows the template previously reached by Microsoft in the video game industry. The neutral agreement commits Microsoft to not launch anti-union campaigns against labor organizations, making it easier for unions to organize within Microsoft. Microsoft will provide a neutral framework for future labor organization affiliated with AFL-CIO. This framework acknowledges the right of employees to form or join unions, the development of positive labor-management relationships, and the commitment to negotiate collective bargaining agreements. It also provides support for workers in an era of rapid technological change. Brad Smith, the President of Microsoft, stated on Monday that the goal of the partnership is to jointly discuss "improving" people's ways of working. He said: "I can't sit here and say that AI will never replace jobs. I think that would be dishonest. AI is carefully designed to speed up the work that you might consider to be tedious and eliminate that part of the work." Liz Shuler, the president of AFL-CIO, called this partnership a "groundbreaking" and "historic" alliance that recognizes the critical role workers play in the development, deployment, and regulation of AI and related technologies. In its statement, Microsoft mentioned that the latest AFL-CIO poll showed that 70% of surveyed workers are concerned about being replaced by AI. Microsoft's recent research found that 70% of employees would delegate as much work as possible to AI in order to lighten their workload. The statement emphasizes that both Microsoft and AFL-CIO acknowledge that if AI is used to enhance work rather than diminish workers' agency and responsibility, it can truly empower workers in their jobs.