How the anxiety over AI could fuel a new workers’ movement | AI (artificial intelligence)

AI, Jobs, and the Battle for the Future of Work: A 2026 Reality Check

In 2026, the workplace is gripped by a new kind of anxiety—one that overshadows the labor victories and worker power movements that once promised a shift in the balance of control. The specter of artificial intelligence looms large, casting uncertainty over millions of livelihoods as tech CEOs race to dominate the AI landscape, touting a future where machines can do everything from coding to running entire companies.

Yet, for the average worker, the narrative is far less optimistic. A 2025 Pew survey found that 64% of Americans believe AI will lead to fewer jobs over the next two decades, and only 17% expect AI to have a positive impact on the country. The promises of job creation ring hollow against the backdrop of a worsening affordability crisis and geopolitical instability.

This is the landscape the Guardian’s Reworked series explores—a deep dive into the human stakes of AI’s disruption of work, from the exhilarating to the alarming. As the series reveals, the future of work is still unwritten, and the power dynamics between employers and employees are being tested like never before.

The Class Divide is Blurring

For blue-collar workers, the rise of AI isn’t just about job displacement—it’s about dehumanization. Long subjected to algorithmic surveillance and optimization, they now face the prospect of being “turned into robots,” as Lisa Kresge, a senior researcher at the UC Berkeley Labor Center, puts it. Meanwhile, white-collar workers are beginning to see their roles morph into something resembling blue-collar labor, with increased tracking, micromanagement, and the looming threat of obsolescence.

But this shared vulnerability is sparking something unexpected: solidarity. As Sarita Gupta, vice-president of US programs at the Ford Foundation, explains, “When a young Silicon Valley software engineer realizes their performance is tracked or undermined by the same logic as a working-class warehouse picker, class divisions dissolve, and larger working-class movements for dignity are possible.”

A Pivotal Moment for Worker Power

The conditions for workers have been dire for decades. Union membership in the US has plummeted to historic lows, with only 9.9% of workers belonging to a union in 2025—the lowest in nearly 40 years. Wages have stagnated even as productivity soared, and the pandemic only intensified the imbalance, pushing frontline workers to their limits while erasing boundaries between work and life for everyone else.

Yet, the rise of AI is drawing renewed attention to this extreme power imbalance. The collective anxiety over AI’s potential is catalyzing workers to push back, much like the Great Resignation and the surge in unionization efforts that followed the pandemic. “I’m hopeful about the opportunity for technology to lift up some of the issues that have been under way in our economy for decades,” Kresge says.

The Power of Perception

Much of the fear surrounding AI is anticipatory, rooted in predictions about a technology that is still being built. Tech CEOs, with a vested interest in the unregulated dominance of AI, often imply that the future is already decided. But as Gupta points out, “We have to always remind ourselves that the direction of technology is a choice. We can use AI to build a surveillance economy that squeezes every drop of value out of a worker, or we can use it to build an era of shared prosperity.”

The mystification of AI by tech leaders is, in many ways, a tactic to disempower workers, policymakers, and critics. But as the Reworked series shows, the narrative is far from settled. The future of work is still being written, and workers have the power to shape it.

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This is a moment of reckoning. The choices we make today about AI and work will define the future for generations to come. The question is: who will hold the power to decide?

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