Biography
Anna Thomas MBE is the Founding Co-Director of the Institute for the Future of Work, where she works at the intersection of policy, academia, and industry to shape a fairer future of work. She is a former barrister specializing in employment and equality law, and she has advised governments, the UK opposition, and major institutions on AI governance and the future of work.
Her work focuses on how technology, regulation, and workforce change interact, with particular attention to responsible AI, skills, good work, and the social consequences of automation. She also brings strong credibility as a public policy thinker and research leader, backed by her MBE for services to research on the future of work.
Her perspective is especially relevant for audiences interested in AI governance, workforce transformation, labor policy, and the human impact of emerging technologies.
Session
- AI For TomorrowSpeaker
Debate 2 — Future of Work: Will AI Replace Half of Knowledge Workers by 2030?
Tuesday 22 September, 16:00 – 16:55Auditorium StageTobi Lütke told Shopify managers: don't hire unless you can prove AI can't do the job. Goldman called it a $7-trillion labor shift. Wall Street is pricing in the productivity surge. So is this the great unbundling of the knowledge economy — or the latest in a 30-year history of tech-replaces-work predictions that never came true? Two debaters fight it out: one sees a near-future where the white-collar middle is hollowed out, the other sees AI as the most powerful augmentation tool we've ever built, with employment levels intact. 55 minutes, bell-to-bell.
With Magda Kufrej, Anna Via, Isabella Loaiza