POSTED: 15 May, 2025

Last week, Associate Professor Penny Williams, Program Lead for the Human-Robot Workforce at QUT and the Australian Cobotics Centre, presented at the Creating Sustainable Work Conference hosted by Karolinska Institutet in Sweden.

Penny’s presentations explored two critical and timely topics: the gig economy and algorithmic work—areas central to understanding how digital technologies and algorithmic management are reshaping contemporary workforces. Her insights contribute to the growing body of research on how technology is influencing job structures, autonomy, and worker wellbeing.

While in Sweden, Penny also participated in international collaboration meetings as part of the ALGOSH project (Algorithmic Management at Work), an initiative funded by Forte. ALGOSH investigates the impact of algorithmic management on worker safety, health, and well-being, with a unique focus on non-platform work settings.

This work complements the mission of the Australian Cobotics Centre, which is committed to ensuring that human-robot collaboration develops in a way that is ethical, sustainable, and beneficial for workers.

🔗 View the conference program