AI and the Future of Work: Sectoral Impacts and Philanthropic Pathways

This Capstone project examined how artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping everyday work across the healthcare, media, entertainment, and education sectors, with a focus on the experiences of frontline white-collar and pink-collar workers. While public discourse increasingly frames AI as a force of rapid and widespread job displacement, emerging evidence suggests its effects are more uneven, task-specific, and shaped by workplace context. Despite record levels of AI investment and adoption, many organizations report limited productivity gains and incomplete integration into existing workflows, particularly in regulated and unionized industries. 

This study investigated the gap between dominant media narratives and workers’ lived experiences of AI deployment. Through a content analysis of roughly 150 media articles, more than 40 semi-structured interviews, and a non-representative survey of over 80 workers, the research explored how AI is changing day-to-day work practices, how workers are adapting to and negotiating these changes, and where opportunities exist for policy and philanthropic interventions that strengthen worker agency. Rather than treating workers as passive recipients, the project highlighted the ways workers are already shaping AI adoption through informal innovation, workplace practices, and collective organizing.