Responsible Management and Skill Transformation in AI-Mediated Workplaces

This paper argues for a shift from responsible AI to responsible management in AI-mediated workplaces. Drawing on ethnographic findings from the Horizon Europe Up-Skill project across ten European manufacturing and craft firms, it examines how digital technologies reshape skill formation, compress learning trajectories, and reconfigure the visibility of human expertise. The paper proposes a three-pillar framework for responsible management of AI-driven skill transformation: sustaining conditions for human learning, preserving and valuing human judgment, and enabling participatory processes through which workers shape how technologies are adopted and used. Rather than treating responsibility as a property of AI systems alone, the framework conceptualizes it as an ongoing organizational accomplishment requiring continuous managerial attention to how skills emerge, evolve, and are recognized under technological change.