AI and workplace relations: A WHS framework for managing relational risks in workplaces

Artificial intelligence (AI) has a growing presence in Australian workplaces. While early assessments focused on job automation and productivity gains, a growing body of evidence points to AI affecting workplace relationships, worker autonomy and psychosocial well-being. This paper examines the relational risks of AI in Australian workplaces, drawing on national and international literature. Businesses in Australia adopt AI technologies for data entry automation, document processing, fraud detection and Generative AI tools. Promising operational efficiency, these innovations also introduce risks of algorithmic management, the erosion of tacit knowledge, digital incivility and the devaluation of human labour. Current governance frameworks fail to sufficiently address these relational harms. This paper makes three contributions. First, it identified AI relational risks affecting workplace dynamics and worker agency. Second, it identifies gaps in Australia's policy response, particularly in the integration of AI-related risks into Work Health and Safety (WHS) regulations. Third, it proposes a framework for managing relational risks grounded in job crafting, participatory oversight and expanded WHS definitions. In doing so, it positions the worker not as a passive recipient of AI impacts but as a co-designer of workplace transformation.