Frontline workers are currently the last to benefit from tech innovation, representing a blind spot that’s holding AI back, says Deepesh Banerji of Deputy
According to recent research from Moneypenny, AI is now powering three-quarters of UK businesses. It’s the most heavily funded technology wave of our lifetime. Yet less than 1% of global tech investment goes toward the industries powered by shift workers – the 2.7 billion people who keep retail, hospitality, social care, and healthcare running.
For decades, technology has overwhelmingly focused on people who log on, not those who clock in. As AI accelerates, this imbalance is widening.
Office workers have spent the past two years debating whether AI will take their jobs. Meanwhile, shift workers, nurses, care workers, baristas, and waiting staff haven’t even been given the tools to join the conversation. Our research shows nearly half of workplaces are already using AI in some capacity, but only one in four workers gets to interact with it. Most individuals have no visibility into how it affects their schedules, responsibilities, or pay.
That disconnect is fuelling a trust crisis: 56% of frontline workers don’t believe their employers are being transparent about AI decisions. This isn’t a niche problem. It’s a structural one, with real economic consequences.
These sectors already operate on thin margins, high regulatory pressure, and chronic worker shortages. Layer in inefficient processes and poor tool integration, and you get turnover rates so high they erode productivity and profitability. If we continue to ignore the shift-based workforce in the AI revolution, we risk undermining the stability of the very industries that keep society functioning. The answer is not simply to “add AI.” It’s to rebuild how we think about innovation for the frontline economy.
Inclusion is a commercial multiplier
AI has the potential to be transformational for shift-based businesses. Technologies like dynamic scheduling can match staffing to demand in real-time, reducing waste and improving service levels. Automated task lists can enhance compliance and reduce unnecessary administrative tasks. Real-time visibility into labour cost versus revenue allows operators to make smarter decisions every hour of the day.
These aren’t futuristic concepts. They’re accessible, proven productivity drivers, and they should be just as available to a support worker or barista as they are to a software engineer.
The truth is, the strongest retention lever in the frontline economy is not higher payroll spend. It’s autonomy, predictability, and fairness; the things technology is uniquely positioned to deliver.
Tools that offer flexible scheduling, seamless shift swapping, and instant access to accurate wage information directly address the anxieties that drive workers out of roles. The payoff is tangible. At Lifeways, a UK care provider, the implementation of better scheduling and communication tools helped create a healthier and more stable workforce and that stability directly improved service quality and operational performance. When workers have tools that make their jobs easier, businesses win too. It’s that simple.
“Dynamic scheduling can match staffing to demand in real-time”
Closing the trust gap
AI will never replace the human connection aspect of frontline work, nor should it. The value of AI on the frontline lies in removing the friction that prevents people from performing the human aspects of their jobs.
If AI can book rooms, count stock, coordinate tasks, or instantly surface information, then workers can spend more time supporting customers and patients. That should be the goal. But for that to happen, workers need clarity. They need to know:
● How AI is influencing their schedules.
● How it affects their pay or task assignments.
● What decisions it’s automating behind the scenes.
We cannot close the trust gap unless AI adoption is grounded in communication, explainability, and ethical deployment. Most importantly, we need to stop building technology for frontline workers and start building it with them. Every friction point, finding a manager, logging a request, resolving a shift change, should inform how tools evolve.
AI is a cultural shift
The hardest part of AI adoption won’t be rolling out the technology. It is transforming the culture and habits among teams so it becomes part of their standard workflow. The opportunity is enormous, imagine:
● Nurses spending more time caring and less time on paperwork.
● Shop assistants focused on customers, not stockrooms.
● Care teams freed from the constant churn of manual scheduling.
This is how we stabilise essential sectors and make frontline roles more attractive and sustainable. When workers understand the purpose of AI, see the time it saves, and have a say in how it’s deployed, productivity will accelerate, not by a few percentage points, but fundamentally.
The frontline economy becomes more resilient. Businesses become more efficient. Workers gain more control over their time. That is the real upside of AI.
Human connection and technology work better together
Investors and innovators have underestimated the shift economy for far too long. The 80% of workers who keep society moving have been left behind by a tech ecosystem built for the 20%. This is the moment to correct that imbalance. Technology for the frontline needs to be simple, mobile-first, transparent, and accessible to every worker, not just those behind a desk.
UK shift workers are not afraid of AI. They’re afraid of being excluded from it. Businesses that fail to bring their workforce into the process will fall behind. The future of work is not a choice between technology and people. It is humans working in partnership with intelligent technology because they’re better together.
About the author
Deepesh Banerji is Chief Product Officer at Deputy.
Further reading
This article was first published in Business 5.0.