Future of Work: Beyond Bossware and Job-Killing Robots To encourage a human-centered workplace, we must rethink AI-driven automation, bossware, labor taxes, and corporate R&D. Jul 6, 2021 | Katharine Miller Image Bossware can track our movements at our offices and across our computer screens. Companies may save money, but at what cost to human dignity? The public conversation around AI’s impact on the labor market often revolves around the job-displacing or job-destroying potential of increasingly intelligent machines. The wonky economic phrase for the phenomenon is “technological unemployment.” Less attention is paid to another significant problem: the dehumanization of labor by companies that use what’s known as “bossware” — AI-based digital platforms or software programs that monitor employee performance and time on task.