A new organizational model is being applied to work, overtaking the classic (and usually divisive) categories through which the phenomenon is analyzed according to the Fordist theory (by way of example, organization – subordination – powers – rights – obligations). Work entails important theoretical questions if it is linked to the most advanced technology (in Europe, in particular, Industry 4.0 and Gig-Economy). If work has already been considered “incomplete” (non-hyphenated word) because a feature of the employment contract under a market economy is its incompleteness, given that work-effort bargain and labor capacity cannot easily be specified ex ante, it should be expected to be all the more “in-complete” in the future due to the peculiar legal relationship that will come to life among (i) the worker, (ii) the employer, and (iii) the machine endowed with artificial intelligence (intelligent machine). The hyphen between “in” and “complete” bears witness to such legal relationship. The intelligent machine can be considered as a third subject, as it is a “third element” that takes part in the legal matters of the contractual pattern involving the employer and the worker. Therefore, beyond traditional scenarios in labor law, there are wider prospects. These prospects concern the impact of the intelligent machine on work organization in the factory of the future. This is probably one of the reasons why labor regulation is changing and will change further. Law and collective bargaining provisions adapt to technology inasmuch as they are shaped by the latter; such provisions do not determine a separated system; labor regulation has instead built (and will build) the most important part of its logical and legal tools on technology. In the close future, the object of the employment contract will necessarily be complemented with the monitoring and regulatory action carried out by machines (third element) on those job tasks the worker will not be stripped of by the most advanced systems created by micro-electronics and computers and related to automation of industrial processes, logistics, transportation, data elaboration, accounting, quality and cost monitoring, medical interventions, biological and chemical processes, waste disposal, selection of materials, etc. My research sets out to provide some answers to the following questions: how is work in a company changing (or has it already changed) in view of the most recent and innovative technological developments, as well as of foreign investments betting on artificial intelligence? How will work labor-regulations change in Europe in the close future, taking into account that automated and smart technology develops at a fast pace in all productive sectors? To what extent and how should EU labor-regulations deal with the fact that intelligent machines (i.e. the third element of the employment contract), endowed with deep learning, will decide, and monitor, patrol, indicate, define, workers’ job tasks? Can we empower such intelligent machine with a sort of “labor legal status”?
