The Dual Face of Workplace AI: A Typology of Digital Work Configurations and Job Quality Implications in Europe

Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping European labour markets, yet research tends to examine worker AI adoption and employer algorithmic management as separate phenomena. This paper develops a typology classifying workers into four digital work configurations based on AI tool usage intensity and algorithmic control exposure: Non‐Digital Baseline, Heavily Controlled, Digitally Empowered and Managed Augmenter. Analysing 50,462 workers across 27 EU countries from the AIM‐WORK survey, the study finds substantial cross‐national variation in configuration distributions and systematically different job quality outcomes across configurations. Digitally Empowered workers earn 21 percentage points more relative to country medians with preserved autonomy, whilst Heavily Controlled workers experience reduced autonomy and work intensification without compensating wage premiums. Managed Augmenters face sustained autonomy constraints despite AI access. The findings demonstrate that organisational configurations of AI and algorithmic management, not technology adoption alone, determine job quality outcomes, with implications for AI governance policies seeking to distribute benefits whilst mitigating worker harms.