Lab for the Future of Work and Well-being
Lab Director
Prof. Yanhui Wu
Professor, Economics and Management and Strategy
About the Lab
Our mission is to advance understanding of how generative AI is transforming labor markets, leisure, and overall wellbeing, with a particular focus on China. We are committed to conducting rigorous, data-driven, and causally robust research to generate actionable insights. Distinctively, our people-centered approach places human wellbeing at the core of our analysis, going beyond productivity and profitability to explore how technological change can foster better jobs and lives.
Project Description
AI Skills in Demand: Mapping the New Landscape of Work in China
Leveraging multi-billion job posting data since 2015, this project quantifies the evolving demand for various AI skills and their associated wage returns in the Chinese labor market, offering the most comprehensive, data-driven picture of how AI is reshaping workforce needs and opportunities.
AI Jobs: Tasks Rebundled, Occupations Unraveled
This project investigates how AI technologies are driving the rebundling of work tasks and the reorganization of occupations, with a special focus on the experiences of middle managers and gig workers.
AI Education: Smarter Classrooms, Bitter Lessons
Using large-scale survey data and experimental evidence, this project examines the impact of AI adoption in educational settings, assessing how intelligent tools influence teaching effectiveness and student learning.
AI Leisure: Fun or Fatigue?
This project explores how generative AI is reshaping leisure consumption, from fitness activities to entertainment experiences, providing evidence on the ways technology is enhancing—or challenging—people’s wellbeing outside of work.
AI Entertainment: Recreating recreation
This project explores the potential of AI-driven tools to design and deliver educational entertainment experiences that both engage and instruct. Using experimental methods, we assess how AI can transform recreation into meaningful learning opportunities.