Note: Single-source report; awaiting corroboration.
The 5th international conference on AI in work, innovation, productivity, and skills is scheduled to take place online from 30 March to 1 April 2026. The event will feature 10 live sessions over three days, bringing together experts from policy, business, academia, and civil society to analyze AI's impact on employment, skills, productivity, and innovation. Topics include agentic AI, algorithmic management governance, and AI’s potential to support neurodivergent learners, among others.
Recent advances in artificial intelligence, particularly in machine learning, have expanded the range of automatable tasks. Unlike earlier technologies that followed pre-defined rules, modern AI can make decisions in unstructured environments, enabling the automation of non-routine activities. As a result, approximately 28% of jobs across OECD countries are considered at high risk of automation. Workers most vulnerable tend to be low-skilled, young, and male.
The conference will also address the growth of domestic outsourcing, where workers are legally employed by one firm but work on the premises of another. This trend is common in occupations such as cleaning, security, and cafeteria staff. Employment in the administrative and support services sector, which includes such third-party business support services, has increased from 3.6% of total employment in 1995 to 6.3% in 2018 in OECD countries.