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Employees all over the world find themselves monitored by AI at work

Hello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m Blake Montgomery, US tech editor at the Guardian, writing to you while moving laundry from the washer to the dryer, wishing a robot could do the task for me. Today in tech, we’re talking about workers and AI. Workers under surveillance Employees across the globe are increasingly finding themselves minutely monitored in their workplaces, with tiny changes in their behaviors resulting in negative performance evaluations. The latest example of workers under surveillance and bris…

By the Truvace desk2 min read1 sourceJournalismTRV-2026-1373· cite & verify
Employees all over the world find themselves monitored by AI at work

In brief

The Guardian's TechScape newsletter reports that employees in several countries are being closely monitored by AI at work. At Co-op Legal Services in the UK, AI models record and score advisers' phone calls with customers about probate, wills and estates. A whistleblower called the system oppressive and dystopian, while Co-op said its advisers were highly engaged.

The newsletter links this to a wider pattern of unequal outcomes from AI, including gender pay gaps in AI jobs and precarious pay for data workers in Kenya. It matters because worker resentment is already feeding into law, as California has banned some forms of surveillance. The piece is a roundup rather than a study, so the scale of monitoring and the effect of the new laws remain unmeasured.

Main points

  1. Co-op Legal Services uses AI to record, analyze and give a percentage score to adviser calls with customers.
  2. A Co-op worker who spoke anonymously said, "You are being watched."
  3. California's new laws target tools such as movement heat maps and emotional-state monitoring.
  4. LinkedIn research cited in the piece found median pay for men in AI-related occupations is $45,000 higher than for women.
  5. Refugee data workers in Kenya say pay depends on a reward system that decides whether they are paid.

The problem

AI systems that record, score and track workers, such as Co-op Legal Services' call rating, subject staff to constant evaluation that a whistleblower called oppressive, prompting new California restrictions.

The rundown

The Co-op case is the newsletter's main example of AI surveillance. A whistleblower described the scoring system as oppressive and dystopian, but the company said it did not recognize the criticism. The article also recalls earlier complaints about Amazon warehouse bathroom-break timing and Kaiser Permanente nurses having their tone of voice rated by automated systems.

On policy, Governor Gavin Newsom signed laws the previous week that prohibit certain types of workplace surveillance. The newsletter presents this as a rare case of fast regulatory response to technology, driven by worker resentment.

The second half asks who benefits from AI. It cites a participation gap for women in the AI industry and notes that men are typically hired for higher-paying roles. It also reports that refugees in Kenya doing tasks for foreign technology firms face opaque pay tied to a reward system, and that many fear AI will do their tasks before they can earn.

Sources

  1. JournalismThe Guardian2026-10-13

The debate