Future of work Archives | Digital Watch Observatory

Microsoft president says AI’s future should be shaped by people, not technology alone

Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith has argued that the future impact of AI should be shaped by people rather than technology alone, emphasising the importance of human agency, creativity and the dignity of work.

In a recent blog post, Smith said concerns expressed by university graduates about AI’s impact on employment should be taken seriously by the technology sector.

Smith also noted that younger generations remain among the most active users of AI technologies but are increasingly questioning how AI will affect jobs, careers and society. He argued that graduates are sending a clear message that AI should support human capabilities instead of determining the role of people in the workforce.

The article draws on historical examples of technological disruption, including photography, computing and automation, arguing that new technologies have often transformed work rather than eliminated human creativity and ambition.

Smith acknowledged concerns about entry-level employment, workforce restructuring and economic uncertainty, while suggesting that AI adoption is likely to unfold over decades rather than over a short period.

Microsoft argues that individuals should focus on combining expertise in their chosen fields with AI literacy. The company also emphasises the importance of uniquely human skills such as creativity, curiosity, communication, compassion and judgement.

For organisations, Smith recommends using AI to strengthen institutional knowledge and productivity while retaining control over proprietary data, intellectual property and strategic decision-making.

Why does it matter?

The debate over AI’s impact on employment has become one of the central questions in technology policy and economic planning. While some forecasts focus on job displacement, others argue that AI will primarily transform how work is performed, creating demand for new skills and roles while reshaping existing occupations.

Smith’s comments offer insight into how a leading AI developer views the long-term transition. His emphasis on augmentation, workforce adaptation and human agency reflects a broader industry narrative that AI should enhance rather than replace human capabilities, while highlighting the growing importance of digital skills, lifelong learning and public participation in decisions about AI deployment.

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Anthropic launches Claude Corps AI fellowship for US nonprofits

Anthropic has announced Claude Corps, a fellowship programme intended to help early-career professionals develop AI skills while supporting nonprofit organisations in the United States.

The company said it is committing an initial $150 million to the initiative, which aims to train 1,000 fellows to use Claude and place them in nonprofit organisations over the coming years. Fellows will spend one year working full-time and in person with host organisations.

Claude Corps will be delivered through a partnership between Anthropic, CodePath and Social Finance. Anthropic will fund the programme, provide Claude expertise and lead its overall strategy. CodePath will act as the fellows’ employer of record and lead fellowship programming, while Social Finance will oversee measurement and evaluation.

Each fellow will receive a salary of $85,000, benefits, mentoring support, ongoing training and access to Claude resources. Anthropic said at least 400 nonprofits will host fellows over the next 12 months, including organisations working on education, workforce development, public services, food security, environmental conservation and community support.

Applications are open for the first cohort of 100 fellows, which is scheduled to begin in October 2026. Anthropic said the programme could later expand beyond the initial 1,000 fellows and may serve as a model for similar initiatives outside the United States.

Why does it matter?

Claude Corps is relevant because it frames AI adoption as a workforce and capacity-building challenge, not only a product deployment issue. The programme links private-sector AI development with labour transition, nonprofit digital capacity and AI literacy. It also reflects growing pressure on frontier AI companies to show how the benefits of AI can be shared more widely as automation reshapes entry-level work and organisational practices.

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ILO and Singapore expand cooperation on AI and the future of work in ASEAN

The International Labour Organization and Singapore have renewed their partnership to support ASEAN countries in responding to labour market changes linked to AI, platform work and demographic shifts.

The new ‘Partnership Agreement for a Collaborative Programme on Labour and Decent Work’ will run from June 2026 to June 2028. It builds on more than 15 years of cooperation between the ILO and Singapore’s Ministry of Manpower.

Developed in consultation with Singapore’s tripartite partners, including the National Trades Union Congress and the Singapore National Employers Federation, the framework aims to strengthen the capacity of governments, employers and workers across ASEAN.

The renewed partnership adds new priority areas, including AI, platform work, non-standard employment, demographic transitions and older workers’ participation in the labour market. Existing areas of cooperation, such as occupational safety and health, skills development and social dialogue, will continue.

The agreement will support policy dialogue, knowledge-sharing activities and the exchange of good practices among ASEAN member states. Recent initiatives under the cooperation framework include the Leaders in Tripartism Programme in Singapore in April 2026 and the Global Dialogue on Digital Platform Work in September 2025, which brought together participants from more than 20 countries.

The renewed partnership reflects a broader focus on how ASEAN labour markets can adapt to technological change, ageing societies and new forms of work while maintaining decent work standards.

Why does it matter?

AI and platform work are reshaping labour markets faster than many policy frameworks can adapt. The ILO-Singapore partnership is not a binding regulatory measure, but it creates a regional cooperation channel for ASEAN governments, employers and workers to exchange approaches on skills, social dialogue, worker protection and decent work standards as employment models change.

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PMI launches global standard for AI project management

The Project Management Institute (PMI) has published a global standard for managing AI initiatives in portfolio, programme and project environments. The standard, titled ‘The Standard for Artificial Intelligence in Portfolio, Program, and Project Management‘, is intended to guide project, programme and portfolio teams delivering AI initiatives.

PMI said AI deployment within organisations is typically delivered through projects, including the development of AI systems, AI-enabled workflows and AI-powered products. The organisation said project professionals have lacked a dedicated framework for planning, governing and delivering AI transformation initiatives.

The standard establishes eight guiding principles, five performance domains and a lifecycle framework for designing, deploying and overseeing AI initiatives. PMI said the guidance is technology-agnostic and built around human-in-the-loop oversight at every stage.

The standard comes as governments and organisations continue to develop AI governance approaches, including risk-based regulation, transparency requirements, and accountability measures. PMI said the standard is intended to help project professionals integrate responsible AI governance into project delivery, from design and development through deployment and oversight.

The standard also addresses AI business cases, tool selection, AI-specific risk management, ethics oversight, and compliance with emerging requirements such as the EU AI Act and ISO 42001. PMI said the framework provides project leaders with a common language for aligning legal, audit, finance, technology and business teams around AI implementation objectives and governance requirements.

The standard is available as a free digital download for PMI members worldwide. Non-members can access the digital edition through purchase or PMI membership.

Why does it matter?

As organisations move from experimenting with AI to deploying it at scale, attention is increasingly shifting from technical development to implementation, governance and operational oversight. Many AI initiatives fail not because of technology limitations, but because of challenges related to project management, risk management, stakeholder alignment and organisational readiness.

PMI’s standard reflects the growing effort to operationalise AI governance by translating broad principles into practical project delivery processes. It also highlights how emerging regulatory frameworks, such as the EU AI Act, are influencing the way organisations plan, manage and oversee AI-enabled transformation initiatives.

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Greece marks six years of gov.gr and unveils public service CRM

The Greek government has marked the sixth anniversary of gov.gr by presenting new figures on the platform’s use and outlining the next phase of public sector digitalisation.

At an event organised by the Ministry of Digital Governance and Artificial Intelligence, officials highlighted the expansion of Greece’s digital public services. They presented a new unified customer relationship management system for citizens and businesses.

According to the ministry, gov.gr now offers more than 2,257 digital services and has been used by over 9 million citizens. More than 431 million documents and certificates have been issued through the platform since its launch. At the same time, the digitisation and simplification of 20 selected procedures is estimated to generate annual savings of €312 million.

The new CRM infrastructure is intended to consolidate interactions between citizens, businesses and public services into a single environment. Requests and cases submitted through gov.gr, Citizens’ Service Centres and call centres will be tracked in one place, allowing users to follow their status and receive updates on the service handling the case and its expected completion.

The CRM project is being implemented under Greece’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan, ‘Greece 2.0’, with financing from the EU’s NextGenerationEU programme. Officials said the system is intended to reduce bureaucracy, improve transparency and make public administration more consistent across different service channels.

Why does it matter?

The move points to a shift in digital government from putting individual services online towards building an integrated public service infrastructure. If implemented effectively, a unified CRM system could make interactions with the state more traceable and coordinated, while also raising important questions about interoperability, data governance, service accountability and citizens’ access to public administration across digital and non-digital channels.

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UK to test AI legal assistants to help reduce court delays

The UK government will develop and test AI legal assistants as part of a broader set of technology initiatives aimed at reducing court delays and improving the efficiency of the justice system. The Ministry of Justice said the tools will support routine casework, including research and case analysis, before any possible use in the Crown Court.

The AI legal assistants will be developed in collaboration with legal professionals and AI developers, with initial testing taking place in controlled environments. The government said the trials will help establish standards for the safe and ethical use of AI in legal settings and ensure any future systems meet the expectations of judges and legal practitioners before wider deployment.

Judges are also preparing to test an AI tool designed to identify trial-ready cases and group similar hearings together. The government said the tool is intended to better use judicial, prosecutorial, and court resources, helping cases move more quickly for victims.

The announcement also covers Justice Transcribe, an AI tool now available to every probation officer in England and Wales. The tool records and transcribes conversations with offenders, reducing the administrative burden associated with transferring handwritten notes into digital systems.

According to the government, Justice Transcribe could free up the equivalent of 18,750 days annually, enabling probation officers to spend more time supervising offenders and supporting efforts to reduce reoffending. A similar transcription tool is being trialled in Immigration and Asylum Tribunals to support judges with case notes and reduce administrative pressure.

The projects form part of the Prime Minister’s AI Exemplars programme, which aims to accelerate the adoption of AI across public services. The government also pointed to AI Growth Labs, secure testing environments intended to help the UK lawtech sector develop and refine AI products before bringing them to market.

Why does it matter?

Justice systems around the world are exploring how AI can help address growing caseloads, administrative burdens and resource constraints. Applications such as legal research assistance, transcription services and case management tools have the potential to improve efficiency while allowing legal professionals to focus on higher-value tasks.

At the same time, the use of AI in judicial and legal contexts raises important questions about accountability, transparency, fairness and human oversight. The UK’s emphasis on controlled testing and ethical safeguards reflects growing recognition that AI deployment in the justice sector requires robust governance alongside technological innovation.

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Stanford Medicine pilot finds safe use of AI in clinical summaries

A Stanford Medicine pilot study has found that an AI-powered tool can help doctors prepare hospital discharge summaries while easing cognitive burden and reducing reported burnout.

The in-house system, known as MedAgentBrief, was designed to condense complex patient histories into draft discharge summaries for physician review. Discharge summaries are essential for continuity of care, but can be time-consuming because doctors must summarise days or weeks of clinical information for outpatient providers.

The tool was piloted for 10 weeks at a Stanford Health Care unit at Sequoia Hospital. Eleven physicians received secure daily emails containing AI-generated summaries for each of their patients, using a format based on a best-practice discharge summary template.

Doctors were asked to review the summaries and provide feedback on inaccuracies, omissions, hallucinations and potential harm. Feedback on 100 AI-enabled summaries found omissions in 25% and inaccuracies in 20%, while hallucinations were rare at 2%.

Physicians rated most unedited summaries as having no harm potential, while some were judged to have mild harm potential. One summary was initially rated as likely to cause moderate harm, but independent reviewers later determined that it posed no risk. No severe harm was reported.

The pilot did not show large time savings. Physicians felt they saved more than 10 minutes per discharge summary, but electronic medical record logs suggested the actual savings were modest, at around three minutes at best. Researchers said the benefit may have come from reducing the effort required to write summaries from scratch.

Participating physicians also reported lower burnout scores. Researchers said the findings suggest AI-generated discharge summaries can support clinical documentation when used under physician supervision, while further evaluation will be needed as health systems consider vendor-based tools.

Why does it matter?

The pilot is useful because it focuses on a practical, high-friction healthcare workflow rather than a speculative AI use case. Discharge summaries affect continuity of care, and poor documentation can create risks for patients after they leave the hospital. Stanford’s findings suggest AI may help reduce doctors’ cognitive load, but also show why human review remains essential: omissions and inaccuracies were common enough that the tool should be treated as clinical support, not automation.

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EY Malta expands AI in audit services

EY Malta has introduced enterprise-scale agentic AI across its Assurance services, integrating the technology into EY Canvas, the firm’s global audit platform.

The rollout forms part of EY’s wider global strategy to embed AI into audit workflows and support audit quality, risk assessment, and client insights.

EY said the AI-enabled framework helps auditors analyse large volumes of data, assess risks, and access updated auditing and accounting guidance in real time. The firm said the technology is designed to support, not replace, auditors, with professional judgement and human oversight remaining central to the audit process.

The system is integrated with Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Foundry, and Microsoft Fabric, reflecting EY’s broader global partnership with Microsoft on the secure and scalable deployment of AI.

EY said the rollout follows global testing and is part of its long-term investment in audit quality, technology, and workforce development. The firm added that further AI enhancements are planned over the coming years as audit teams use the tools across more stages of the audit process.

EY Malta also highlighted related assurance and advisory services linked to AI readiness, governance, and risk management. The firm said the technology would allow teams in Malta to focus more on risk and audit quality while reducing administrative work.

Why does it matter?

The rollout shows how agentic AI is moving into regulated professional services, including audit, where accuracy, accountability, and human judgement remain central. AI could help auditors analyse larger datasets and focus on higher-risk areas. Still, it also raises questions about oversight, explainability, skills, liability, and how regulators assess AI-supported audit work.

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UK launches £200 million initiative to accelerate AI adoption across the economy

The UK government has unveiled a nationwide initiative to accelerate AI adoption, announcing more than £200 million in funding to help businesses deploy AI technologies while strengthening workforce skills.

The announcement was made at the inaugural AI Adoption Summit, which brought together technology companies, trade unions and industry leaders to discuss the practical deployment of AI across the economy.

The programme includes a £100 million expansion of the Bridge AI scheme to connect businesses with AI solutions and expertise, alongside £53 million for new AI innovation and adoption initiatives. Additional funding will support AI Growth Zones, scholarships, workforce training and sector-specific programmes aimed at helping organisations adopt AI responsibly and effectively.

A key element of the initiative is the creation of the AI Economics Institute, chaired by Nobel Prize-winning economist Simon Johnson. The institute will examine how AI affects employment, productivity and economic growth.

More than 30 companies have also committed to sharing data and experiences related to workplace AI adoption to help inform future policy development.

The UK government said the strategy seeks to increase AI adoption across businesses while ensuring workers gain the skills needed to benefit from technological change. Alongside public investment, several technology companies announced additional commitments focused on training, workforce development, research and business support.

Why does it matter?

Governments are increasingly shifting their focus from supporting AI research alone to encouraging widespread adoption across businesses and public services. Many policymakers see AI deployment as a key driver of productivity, competitiveness and economic growth, provided organisations and workers have the skills needed to use the technology effectively.

The UK’s initiative reflects this broader trend by combining investment in AI adoption with workforce development and evidence-based policymaking. The creation of the AI Economics Institute also signals growing interest in understanding how AI will affect jobs, productivity and economic performance as adoption accelerates.

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Belgium outperforms EU average in business AI use

Belgium ranks among Europe’s top five countries for business use of AI, with more than a third of companies now using at least one AI technology.

In 2025, 34.54% of Belgian companies reported using AI, up from 24.71% in 2024. The figure is well above the European average of 19.95%, according to the latest Belgian Digital Economy Overview.

Adoption varies strongly by company size. More than 76% of large enterprises already use AI technologies, compared with just over 28% of small businesses.

The most common business applications include text analysis, content production (written or spoken), machine learning, and workflow automation. Companies mainly use AI for administrative and management processes, accounting and finance, and marketing and sales.

AI use is also rising among individuals. In 2025, 33.53% of Belgians used generative AI tools for personal use, compared with the European average of 25.09%.

Digitalisation Minister Vanessa Matz said Belgium should build on the momentum with a coherent strategy that strengthens expertise, supports talent, improves access to European technological capabilities, and builds trust.

She also stressed that AI development should take place within a clear, protective, and inclusive framework that respects privacy, prevents bias, and avoids widening inequalities.

Why does it matter?

Belgium’s AI uptake shows that business adoption is no longer limited to experimentation, especially among large companies. The gap between large enterprises and small businesses also matters, because uneven adoption could widen productivity differences inside the economy. The policy challenge is to support broader AI use while building safeguards around privacy, bias, skills, and inclusion.

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