We Are Not Machines
The Fight for the Future of Work
Published on 4. June 2026
Book
Hardback
256 pages
978-0-241-70422-6 (ISBN)
Description
'Sarah is one of the few people who really understands how AI is changing the character of work already and what it means for all of us' David Runciman
'Original and enlightening... Not many books about the labour market make you laugh and bring tears to your eyes' Emma Duncan, The Times
From award-winning Financial Times journalist Sarah O'Connor, a deeply reported investigation into how AI is transforming our working lives in unpredictable ways
A tsunami of change, we are told, is sweeping the economy, as robots and AI threaten to take over tasks done by humans. But while we worry that we're robotizing our work, what if the bigger risk is that we're robotizing ourselves?
When prize-winning Financial Times journalist Sarah O'Connor set out to investigate what was happening on the ground, she met people who weren't necessarily losing their jobs to machines, but who felt they were losing something, nonetheless. Because the quantity of work is not the only thing at stake in times of rapid technological change. So is its quality.
From TV subtitle translators reduced to editing AI output to warehouse workers surrounded by robots and graduates interviewed by machines, O'Connor found stories of work becoming more intense, more lonely, less creative, less human.
But she also investigated hopeful instances of work being made better, safer and more enjoyable - stories in which people have been able to make the machines work for them, rather than the other way around.
Her reporting shows that the way our tools change our work - and ourselves - is shaped by power, design, culture, institutions and ideas. As a result, the outcome is not pre-determined but must be contested by us all.
Inspired by stories from nineteenth-century English cotton mills to twenty-first century Swedish mines, We Are Not Machines reveals how we can fight for work which is more respectful of our limits, and more worthy of our minds.
'Original and enlightening... Not many books about the labour market make you laugh and bring tears to your eyes' Emma Duncan, The Times
From award-winning Financial Times journalist Sarah O'Connor, a deeply reported investigation into how AI is transforming our working lives in unpredictable ways
A tsunami of change, we are told, is sweeping the economy, as robots and AI threaten to take over tasks done by humans. But while we worry that we're robotizing our work, what if the bigger risk is that we're robotizing ourselves?
When prize-winning Financial Times journalist Sarah O'Connor set out to investigate what was happening on the ground, she met people who weren't necessarily losing their jobs to machines, but who felt they were losing something, nonetheless. Because the quantity of work is not the only thing at stake in times of rapid technological change. So is its quality.
From TV subtitle translators reduced to editing AI output to warehouse workers surrounded by robots and graduates interviewed by machines, O'Connor found stories of work becoming more intense, more lonely, less creative, less human.
But she also investigated hopeful instances of work being made better, safer and more enjoyable - stories in which people have been able to make the machines work for them, rather than the other way around.
Her reporting shows that the way our tools change our work - and ourselves - is shaped by power, design, culture, institutions and ideas. As a result, the outcome is not pre-determined but must be contested by us all.
Inspired by stories from nineteenth-century English cotton mills to twenty-first century Swedish mines, We Are Not Machines reveals how we can fight for work which is more respectful of our limits, and more worthy of our minds.
Reviews / Votes
Original and enlightening, rooted in reality and populated by people. Not many books about the labour market make you laugh and bring tears to your eyes. This one does. It's the kind of writing that AI will never replace... She talks to miners in Sweden, care workers in the Netherlands, drivers in America and online workers everywhere from Costa Rica to the Himalayas. Out of those stories she creates a remarkable picture of what is happening to jobs -- Emma Duncan * The Times * Sarah is one of the few people who really understands how AI is changing the character of work already and what it means for all of us -- David Runciman * Past Present Future Podcast * A fierce, wise, beautiful book -- Tim Harford A lively and engaging read which teases out some compelling human stories. O'Connor describes both the peril and promise unleashed by AI - and issues a powerful call to arms for us all about how to respond. A must-read for educators, policy makers, executives and employees -- Gillian Tett No-one provides a better worms-eye view of the world of work than Sarah O'Connor. True to form, this is a brilliantly insightful grassroots account of how the revolution in AI is changing work for good (and for bad) and how practically technology might be configured to enhance our minds, bodies and souls, rather than deplete them. This holds the key to harvesting the full fruits of the fourth Industrial Revolution and securing its societal, as distinct from technological, success -- Andy Haldane An invaluable guide to one of the biggest economic stories of our age. Most books about AI lurch between hype and despair but Sarah O'Connor has captured something far rarer: a glimpse of how machines are actually reshaping our lives and livelihoods -- Ed Conway A hopeful and urgent reminder that the future of work is what we make it. Instead of speculating about what technology might do, Sarah O'Connor looks at what it is already doing to workers around the world. Her warning is important and grounded: there is a better path -- Carl Benedikt Frey, author of <i> How Progress Ends </i>More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Penguin Books Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 223 mm
Width: 146 mm
Thickness: 30 mm
Weight
357 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-241-70422-6 (9780241704226)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
06/2026
Penguin
€14.99
Available for download
Person
Sarah O'Connor is a columnist, reporter and associate editor at the Financial Times. She writes a weekly column focused on the world of work, as well as longer features and investigations. She has won the Orwell Prize for Exposing Britain's Social Evils, the Wincott Award for financial journalism, Business Commentator of the Year at the Comment Awards, Financial/Economic story of the year at the Foreign Press Awards and Business and Finance Journalist of the year at the British Press Awards.