How is work changing with AI? with Damian Grimshaw

The Work and Equalities Institute's annual lecture at Alliance Manchester Business School, this year on how AI is changing jobs, built on new evidence from the UK video games industry. Damian Grimshaw, Professor of Employment Studies at King's College London and former research director at the International Labour Organisation, sets out four lenses: whether AI automates or augments work, how employers use it to reshape control, how professional roles shift around it, and how AI firms capture value from established organisations. His games-industry data shows what he calls bypassing practices, where some workers' AI use overlaps with or cuts out other technical groups, and work moves to specialist AI firms. He closes on what unions, employers and government should do about it. Lecture 15:00 to 16:30, then drinks until 17:00. Free. Why go: one of the few Manchester rooms looking at AI adoption from the workforce side with real data rather than vendor case studies. Best for people leaders, engineering managers and anyone in games or creative tech.