An AI job boom? Here’s what the tedious, temporary work in data labelling is actually like
Data work is an essential part of building and refining AI systems. Before AI models can “learn” anything, human data workers must categorise, label, test and moderate vast volumes of text, images, audio and video, to make the data usable for AI training.
This labour is performed by an expanding global digital workforce that prepares the datasets not only for big tech, but also high-stakes industries such as banking, insurance, healthcare and government agencies, including defence.
The article highlights how this work is often low-paid, repetitive, and precarious, raising questions about the true human cost of the AI economy.
This article was published in The Conversation, 24 August 2026