Artificial intelligence and its impact on the current and future transport workforce: policies and research to bridge the gaps and foster cooperation versus competition between countries

• Transition to AI cannot occur at the expense of social and personal wellbeing. • A just technology transition to AI needs a regulatory framework. • Barriers and challenges of collaboration across borders are identified. • Research directions emerge from two field surveys with stakeholders and students. • Eleven policies and five research directions have been identified. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is widely recognised as the revolution of this era; however, its adoption is uneven across industries and countries, with a wide gap between Europe and non-EU countries. The paper analyses the state of AI adoption, focusing on transport workforce, and aims at proposing common actions, research, and policies to create cooperation rather than competition. To this end, a literature review was conducted, followed by two field surveys on the needs and actions of stakeholders and students to manage the transition to increasing digitalisation and automation accelerated by AI. The field surveys involved focus groups, interviews and archaeological ethnography and were based on a worldwide selection of stakeholders from different transport sectors, and a sample of undergraduate, master’s, and PhD students. Textual analysis was used for data analysis. Over 900 stakeholders from 45 countries, including all levels of workforce, and nearly 600 students were involved. Needs, issues and concrete actions emerged, proposing specific measures to reduce the risks generated by AI. The main recommendations refer to: a) labour market regulation that requires broader inclusion of social dialogue; b) integration of the educational approach at different school and work levels, to prepare people to think independently and be creative in order to prevent shocks in adapting to AI evolution, fostering collaboration instead of competition. Field experiments are proposed to test policies, making the transition to AI use effective. The EU-US comparison in light of the proposed policies highlights the barriers created by different economic contexts, values and market regulations.