Villages, protocols, and the AI-driven future of work: some Wittgensteinian reflections

How will the future of work organizations be affected by the spread of generative AI? Based on Wittgensteinian reflections on the nature of rules and rule-following, this paper argues that so far, in many jobs the interpretation of rules had to lie with those doing the actual work. In the future, it might become more and more embodied in AI systems that advise, monitor, and sanction workers. This shifts power to employers and reduces the necessity of even bringing workers together in organizations. The ongoing trend of ‘fissuring’ organizations, e.g. through outsourcing, is likely to be reinforced. A possible scenario is a polarization of work organization into, on the one hand, what I call ‘villages’–in which the members of the community retain the right to interpret, or even write, their workplace rules –, and, on the other hand, ‘protocolled jobs’–in which workers lose this right and become lonely puppets of rules-with-algorithms with minimal interpretive space. The paper concludes with some reflections on possible societal implications.