The working life and workers health and wellbeing have been disturbed due to COVID-19. The AI technologies provide multiple solutions

Read the concerted paper between SmartWork partners and projects on the role of AI technologies in working through COVID-19 and its aftermath.The SmartWork project, under the leadership of Cáritas Coimbra and the ECHAlliance for its Concertation Activities, invited all projects funded by the European Union under the call SC1-DTH-2018-1  to join the efforts to elaborateon the role and contribution of the digital solutions and systems to the COVID-19 implications in various work environments.

The main aims of the concerted paper is to:

• reflect and share about the COVID-19 implications to the work environments, now that teleworking turned into a main instrument and necessity for us all;
• understand how the digital solutions and systems could be developed, adapted, optimized or applied to better respond to the pandemic context challenges.

The contributions collected followed three proposed guiding questions, although the contributing partners were free to explore other relevant aspects, in their understanding:

• How can technology applied to the work environment be leveraged to respond to the emerging challenges raised by COVID-19?
• Are there changes to the actual priorities and needs, considering the pandemic situation?
• Is this an opportunity for projects such as SmartWork to underline the needs to introduce a digital revolution in the workplace?

During the next pages, all the different contributions are aligned. The individual contributions and opinions of SmartWork partners are constituting Chapter 1. Chapter 2 collects the contributions provided by the different projects that were funded under the same call.

Some similarities can be highlighted:

• The desire to leverage the existing knowledge to rapidly respond to the challenges of this new (even if hopefully temporary) era;
• The understanding of the challenges ahead and the will to overcome them collectively.

The collective first step is already the creation of this common paper. It is surely a positive sign for the future. But also some conclusions can be drawn:

• COVID-19 impacted the way we live, work and spend free time severely,
• It has effects on physical and mental health and wellbeing,
• AI can play a great role in providing solutions, not only during the emergency but also in the long-term, and not only for the officer workers but also for the more traditional industries.