We Are Not Machines by Sarah O’Connor review – can dignity at work survive the tech revolution?
Financial Times journalist Sarah O'Connor has published a book examining how AI and automation are reshaping work, labor conditions, and the balance of power between workers and the technologies being deployed around them. The book arrives as job vacancy numbers in the UK hit a five-year low and concerns about AI-driven employment disruption continue to grow.
Why this matters: The question O'Connor is asking is not really about robots. It is about who controls the terms of work when the tools change faster than any worker can adapt. Automation does not just cut jobs. It can strip out judgment, reduce autonomy, and turn people into monitors of machines rather than skilled workers in their own right. That shift rarely shows up in unemployment statistics until it is too late. Books like this matter because the policy debate tends to move slowly while the technology moves fast, and most of the people most affected have the least say in how it gets rolled out.
Who should care: AI governance · Lawyers · Administrators · General readers · Policy
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