--- title: "Bosses Deploying AI-Powered Spyware That Watches Workers Constantly" description: "Bosses are deploying custom AI tools to keep tabs on their employees, listen to what they say, and grade them on customer interactions." date: "2026-10-18" modified: "2026-10-18" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore.md" url: "https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/bosses-ai-software-watches-workers" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Cybersecurity" - "Future Society" --- # Bosses Deploying AI-Powered Spyware That Watches Workers Constantly ![An office worker looking at a computer.]() *Shutterstock / Futurism* Workplace surveillance is being supercharged by AI that lets employers create custom tools to [watch their worker's every move](). In the UK, the legal services company the Co-op is reportedly using AI models to constantly record and monitor what its human employees say and evaluate their interactions with customers. According to a [scoop from *The Guardian*](), what one whistleblower called an "oppressive and dystopian" system uses an OpenAI model trained to assess more than 50 different aspects of each phone call and give pass and fail scores. Depending on how much time they spend speaking to customers, workers are sometimes monitored by AI for up to several hours each day, one worker said. "You are being watched," an employee at the Co-op told *The Guardian*. "It's different from occasionally being listened to for compliance purposes. \[You are\] being monitored absolutely every word that you say and every time that you utter something... It just feels really dystopian. It's the thin end of the wedge." It's yet another example of how AI is dramatically reshaping the workplace. If it isn't being used to automate or replace jobs, it's [intensifying work]() by increasing the workload that employees are expected to do. Or in the case of places like the Co-op, it's being put to optimize operations by codifying every employee interaction into a data point that can be graded by supervisors. In the US, an estimated 61 percent of workplaces are already using AI analytics software to gauge worker productivity, according to a [survey](). Earlier this year, Burger King began [forcing employees to wear AI-powered headsets ]()to monitor the friendliness of their interactions with customers and beam them commands from a chatbot called Patty. Meta nearly sparked a mini-mutiny earlier this summer when it rolled out a tool to track workers keystrokes and their screens and use that data to train its AI models, before pausing it after it [exposed the intimate data](). In a statement to *The Guardian*, the Co-op downplayed the dystopian characterizations and called AI a "key aspect of our quality assurance processes." AI, it further insisted, is used only as a support tool, not a decision maker. Experts aren't convinced that AI's presence in the workplace is so benign. "AI is sold as the solution to every problem, but examples like this make it clear that it can diminish sensible workplace practices and intensify working lives for no reason," John Chadfield, the national officer of the Communication Workers Union, told *The Guardian*. "Unaccountable computer systems should not be people's managers, and these hard-working employees demand far more respect." **More on AI:** [*AI Agent Blamed for Deleting Entire Upcoming Season of TV Show*]() ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()