IB Digital Society 4.2B Employment and Labour Key Definitions

The use of software and algorithms, rather than human managers, to assign tasks, monitor performance, and make decisions about workers, common on gig and platform work.

The use of technology to perform tasks without human intervention.

The gap between people who have reliable access to digital systems and the skills to use them and those who do not, a gap that tends to follow existing lines of income, age, geography, and ability.

A person who works remotely using digital systems while travelling or living in different places, rather than being tied to one fixed location for their job.

Technologies, applications, and platforms that create, store, process, and distribute digital data and information. Smartphones, social media platforms, AI assistants, and robots are all digital systems.

The use of digital systems to change how an organization operates and delivers value, such as moving sales online or automating processes. It is broader than digitization, which is simply converting analogue information into digital form.

An economy in which people offer short-term services and commissions via digital technologies.

A business whose main product is a digital platform that connects two or more groups, such as buyers and sellers or riders and drivers, and profits by controlling and taking a share of the exchanges between them.

Working away from a central workplace, usually from home, using digital systems such as the internet, video calls, and shared online tools to stay connected and do the job.

Learning new skills so that a worker can move into a different role, often because automation or digital change has reduced the need for their previous job.

The systematic monitoring of people's behaviour, often through digital data, by a state or company, whether or not those being watched are aware of it.