The gig economy built a labor model around insecurity: workers treated as independent contractors, paid per task, managed by apps rather than people, and stripped of the protections that come with traditional employment. According to The Guardian, gig workers are "endlessly exploited" — and artificial intelligence could push more of the workforce into the same precarious conditions.
The argument, laid out in The Guardian, is that the dynamics long confined to ride-hailing drivers and delivery couriers may not stay there. As AI tools spread into more industries, the same patterns — algorithmic management, fragmented piecework, and weakened worker bargaining power — could reach jobs that were once considered stable.
In other words, the worry is less about robots replacing workers outright and more about AI reshaping the terms of work itself: who sets the pace, who absorbs the risk, and who is classified out of basic labor rights. The Guardian frames this as a fate that "more of us" could come to share, signaling that the precarity of gig labor is a preview rather than an exception.
The piece is an opinion and analysis framing rather than a report of new data, so the specifics of which jobs, where, and how fast remain open questions. What it offers is a warning about direction: the technology being marketed as a productivity boon could also become a tool for extending an already-criticized employment model to a far wider population.
Why it matters: how societies regulate AI at work will help decide whether it raises the floor for workers or simply spreads the gig economy's insecurity to millions more people.