When an AI “Agentforce” enters the workforce: generative AI, employment relations, and the changing social contract

Generative AI and autonomous AI agents are reshaping both the legal employment relationship and the broader social contract between employers and employees. This contract reflects society's shared expectations about what employers and employees owe each other, including how value is created and distributed and who has authority and accountability for various activities. Unlike prior waves of automation that primarily affected routine tasks, generative AI now touches high-wage, high-status "knowledge" work, altering how expertise is recognized, how decisions are made, and how relationships are formed at work. This paper examines the historical foundations of technological change and employment relations, highlighting how generative AI intensifies existing trends while also introducing new dynamics across six key domains: (1) the role of employee judgment and authority, (2) the value of employee expertise and human-created data, (3) appropriate organizational control and employee autonomy, (4) the nature of work relationships, particularly in the context of AI agents, (5) responsibility for reskilling and career development, and (6) worker collective power. By examining these changing domains, organizational scholars can help explain how generative AI and AI agents are fundamentally altering the social contract of modern employment.