# Beyond automation: artificial intelligence and its cross-cutting impact on work

Author: Pilar Mairal Medina
Original publication: 2024-05-01
Spanish original: https://estrategiabyaleph.substack.com/p/estrategia-31-desafiando-los-paradigmas
English URL: https://elcontemplador.github.io/estrategia-english/essays/031/
Status: Published translation

This is a translation of the original Spanish essay published on 1 May 2024. Its claims, examples and forecasts retain that historical context.

English publication: 2026-09-29

> **Editorial introduction:** In this issue of estrategIA, published on 1 May, International Workers’ Day, we are delighted to welcome a special contribution on the relationship between AI and work from **[Pilar Mairal Medina](https://www.linkedin.com/in/pilarmairal?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=android_app), an adviser in the office of the Secretary of State for Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence at Spain’s Ministry for Digital Transformation and the Civil Service**.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and its impact on employment are a highly relevant and widely debated topic today, given this technology’s exponential growth and its adoption by businesses and public administrations. We can now confirm that AI is transforming the way we work, introducing new opportunities and challenges into the labour market, particularly when we consider generative AI: AI that creates new, individualised content from a variety of resources and formats.

According to the International Monetary Fund’s report *Gen-AI: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Work*, almost 40% of global employment is exposed to AI, rising to 60% in advanced economies (IMF, 2024).

This broad picture must be understood in a context in which digitalisation, and specifically the integration of technologies such as AI, is unequivocally cross-cutting. We are talking about activities as diverse as creating, producing and selling AI-based software and hardware, but also applied research and services associated with project management or legal advice, in every productive sector, to a greater or lesser extent.

Consider the dynamism of the economic ecosystem associated with digital transformation, in which integrating AI has become a challenge for organisations and their professionals, and a focal point for government investment. The complexity of digitalisation’s effects on particular economic sectors also matters. In AI’s case, these effects are generating growing mobilisation among groups concerned about creators’ rights, for example in the cultural industries or agriculture, and around ethical dilemmas arising from the risks of commercial AI use, disinformation, and bias in algorithmic management of client portfolios or human resources.

As an initial conclusion, we can say that the dilemmas surrounding AI are diverse and will probably grow as the technology itself advances and its applications bring disruption. Different bodies across the world are beginning to respond, either through multilateral agreements or through new regulatory frameworks. In the first case, the United Nations is a clear example, with its High-Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence, created in August 2023 to bring together different perspectives and approaches to AI governance and its alignment with human rights and the Sustainable Development Goals.

On another front, in December 2023 the European Union reached a political agreement on the Artificial Intelligence Act, whose aim is to minimise the effects of AI systems classified as high-risk on health, safety or fundamental rights. As we can see, and again given this technology’s disruptive nature, its effects — expected or otherwise — provide ample grounds for debate. Political priorities must undoubtedly be reviewed continually to respond to these dilemmas and to what will also undoubtedly be growing pressure from different interest groups: technology companies, professional groups, users and consumers, among others.

From the perspective of work, we can say that the implications of adopting AI are multifaceted, since we cannot overlook the opportunities it generates. In 2020, the European Parliament’s report *Opportunities of Artificial Intelligence* indicated that AI adoption, always dependent on developing supporting infrastructure and providing training, could increase labour productivity by between 11% and 37% in 2035, substantially improving innovation capabilities and job creation (European Parliament, June 2020). And today, with the emergence of generative AI, we can see that positive effects such as skills development and the creation of higher-value-added jobs already coexist with the replacement — or supplementation — of human tasks that have been automated.

The underlying point is that AI requires interdisciplinarity in a working environment involving multiple professions, where different professional profiles can feed and supervise the algorithms underpinning their organisations’ processes, and manage improvements in products and services by reviewing those algorithms’ performance and transparency. In short, we are in a new context in which the move towards cross-cutting organisational management and networked working is irreversible. To a large extent, these will be the keys to driving professional reskilling and the acquisition of skills suited to the labour market in a digital context.

Alongside this are other psychosocial factors of considerable interest that will undoubtedly receive increasing analysis. These concern the virtualisation of workplaces and working tools, and the impact of these new settings and tools on organisations themselves. We must ask: are organisations ready to move forward with integrating AI into their activities? We can consider the talent they need to attract when answering this question, but we must not forget the organisational designs and cultures towards which businesses and institutions integrating AI should move, or the principles and criteria that should guide the management of these working environments.

By way of conclusion, we can suggest that integrating AI into the workplace is not only redefining the parameters of employment and of industrial and service production, but necessarily leads towards a new work ethic. Closer collaboration between humans and AI systems, in which technology amplifies human capabilities without replacing them, will undoubtedly encourage a more inclusive and productive labour market: more efficient, but also more empathetic and equitable. New values for a context of continuous change, and for a new paradigm in the relationship between technology and work.

[Pilar Mairal Medina](https://www.linkedin.com/in/pilarmairal?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=android_app)

*Adviser in the office of the Secretary of State for Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence at Spain’s Ministry for Digital Transformation and the Civil Service.*