Algorithmic management and work on digital labor platforms: effects of recommendation algorithms

The Fourth Industrial Revolution has profoundly transformed the world we live in, bringing with it significant social changes and a new paradigm for labor relations. The technological development has provided the rise of businesses based on digital platforms, which have become an important source of employment and work for many individuals. Based on new technological concepts applied to online businesses, namely the addition of artificial intelligence and algorithms to the business (extremely strategic and powerful tools in the context of capitalization), digital platforms have connected supply and demand for products and services, thus providing flexible work opportunities, as well as a sense of inclusion, through the way it absorbs “labor” without discrimination. On the other hand, it raises a series of problems from the outset, such as: competition, fiscal, tax and, mainly, labor issues. Given their continuous evolution and improvement, these technologies are developed every day, with the aim of optimizing to the maximum the informational substrates in terms of data that they have for decision-making, the latter increasingly strategic and correct. In this context, the recommendation algorithm emerges as a mechanism for perceiving the immediate application of the business, as a reaction to behaviors arising from the platform/users interaction that, at the same time, “checks” the system, adapts it to the preferences of the users, and applies small actions to generate reactions in those same users. This article aims to analyze the effects of the recommendation algorithms of digital labor platforms on their “service providers”, highlighting both positive and negative aspects of this mechanism. Some of the actions in favor of the beneficial use of artificial intelligence will also be addressed, in order to overcome some of the harmful effects shown during the practical applications of recommendation algorithms in the work of gig workers.