The impacts of artificial intelligence and other automation technologies on business operations and immigrant workers in the post-COVID era
Project Lead(s)
Team Members
Marshia Akbar, Xingfei Liu, Rupa Banerjee, Wendy Cukier, John Hartley, Graham King, Jane Zhu
The COVID-19 pandemic led to short-term disruptions by lockdowns, and spurred long-lasting impacts on global lifestyles, business practices, and labour market dynamics through accelerated use of remote work, increasing use of automation, and AI measures.
Objective
This project aims to assess how organizations were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, this project examines how organizations responded, how they learned to recover, and how they plan to thrive post-pandemic. This research will also conduct a systemic analysis that comprehensively addresses the impact of particular technological transformations on immigrant workers and business operations, including human resource practices such as recruitment, selection, and compensation, and alternative work arrangements, notably remote work and work-from-home.
Research question(s)
- What are the medium and long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on business operations and organizational performance?
- How will AI and other automation technologies affect the work, workplace, and workers?
- Who are the new actors and how can they respond to these changes in labour governance and especially migrant labour governance?
- How are business operations and business needs in labour and skills shifting due to AI and automation?
Methodology
This research will adopt a mixed-methods approach. The literature review will consist of qualitative and quantitative analyses of employer and immigrant worker perceptions on how AI will affect workplace practices and immigrant integration. Additional analysis will be conducted on an existing dataset of in-depth employer interviews to better understand how employer responses to COVID and AI affect immigrant integration patterns using a case study method.
Status
The project has started and is currently ongoing.
Expected completion date: September 2026
Key words
Automation technologies; artificial intelligence (AI); immigrant workers; post-COVID
