From Future of Work to Future of Workers: Addressing Asymptomatic AI Harms for Dignified Human-AI Interaction

TL;DR

This paper investigates the subtle, long-term harms of AI in high-stakes workplaces, highlighting skill erosion and identity issues, and proposes a framework to promote dignified human-AI interaction that safeguards human expertise.

Contribution

It introduces a sociotechnical framework for dignified Human-AI interaction that addresses asymptomatic harms and skill erosion, based on a year-long study in healthcare settings.

Findings

AI causes skill atrophy and identity commoditization over time.

Operational gains can mask underlying expertise erosion.

The proposed framework enhances worker agency and preserves human identity.

Abstract

In the future of work discourse, AI is touted as the ultimate productivity amplifier. Yet, beneath the efficiency gains lie subtle erosions of human expertise and agency. This paper shifts focus from the future of work to the future of workers by navigating the AI-as-Amplifier Paradox: AI's dual role as enhancer and eroder, simultaneously strengthening performance while eroding underlying expertise. We present a year-long study on the longitudinal use of AI in a high-stakes workplace among cancer specialists. Initial operational gains hid ``intuition rust'': the gradual dulling of expert judgment. These asymptomatic effects evolved into chronic harms, such as skill atrophy and identity commoditization. Building on these findings, we offer a framework for dignified Human-AI interaction co-constructed with professional knowledge workers facing AI-induced skill erosion without traditional labor protections. The framework operationalizes sociotechnical immunity through dual-purpose mechanisms that serve institutional quality goals while building worker power to detect, contain, and recover from skill erosion, and preserve human identity. Evaluated across healthcare and software engineering, our work takes a foundational step toward dignified human-AI interaction futures by balancing productivity with the preservation of human expertise.