Home · What We Do · Think Tank
Pillar 03 · Think Tank

Shaping the policies that shape the future of work.

Through Work Congress, HAPI research, and our policy advocacy, we put worker perspectives at the center of the global conversation about AI, automation, and economic justice.

Visit Work Congress → Read Our Research
Leaders discussing the future of work
Our role

A bridge between workers and decision-makers.

AI will reshape labor markets faster than any prior shift. Without policy designed with workers — not just for them — millions will be left behind. The NWLB Think Tank exists to make sure that doesn't happen.

  • ✓
    HAPI ResearchThe Human Adaptability and Potential Index — measuring the skills that determine who thrives in the AI age.
  • ✓
    Work CongressOur annual flagship convening on May 1 — International Labor Day.
  • ✓
    Policy AdvocacyWe work with global, national, and local leaders to advance worker-centered policy.
  • ✓
    The State of the WorkerAn annual survey of worker sentiment, published as an open-access report.
Annual · Every May 1, International Labor Day

Work Congress

Our flagship annual virtual think-tank summit exploring how AI is transforming careers, workplaces, and economic opportunities.

25+ speakers · 40 sessions · 5 tracks · 5,000+ attendees · 100% free

Visit Work Congress → Become a Research Partner
Featured research · HAPI

The Human Adaptability & Potential Index.

A groundbreaking framework, jointly developed with Tao.AI, that measures the one skill determining who thrives in the AI economy — adaptability.

HAPI research

HAPI measures adaptability across five dimensions: cognitive, emotional, behavioral, social, and growth potential. It gives businesses a smarter way to hire, governments a strategy to future-proof their workforce, and individuals a roadmap for career resilience.

  • ✓
    Real-time, data-driven assessmentFirst-ever framework to measure adaptability quantitatively.
  • ✓
    For businesses, governments, and workersA tool for hiring, policy, and personal development.
  • ✓
    Joint NWLB + Tao.AI initiativeBacked by leading co-researchers and industry partners.
Take HAPI Lite — 5 min → Read the 2026 Index Explore the Job Map
New · 2026 Flagship Series

Twenty pieces. One argument: the future of work is a worker-level question.

Original frameworks. Named sources. Schema-rich and citation-ready. Read any three to map the next five years of work.

HAPI · Flagship

The HAPI Index 2026

A worker-centered measure of adaptability in the AI decade. Five dimensions, country benchmarks, predictive validity.
Think Tank

Who Gets Augmented, Who Gets Replaced

The 2026 job-displacement map: a 2×2 of AI exposure × worker bargaining power, with 72 occupations placed.
Veterans

The Civilian Cliff

Why half of veterans leave their first civilian job — and the four-phase playbook that cuts it in half.
Worker Rights

The Gig Economy Settlement

CA Prop 22, the EU PWD, WA portable benefits, UK "worker" status — four frameworks, side by side.
Mental Health

The Burnout Decade

Why workplace mental-health spending rose 4.5× and burnout still rose 11 points — and what works.
Women

Women, Work & the Future

What's left of the gender pay gap is mostly about care, time, and "greedy work." Five levers, by country.
Knowledge Hub

Apprenticeship 2.0

U.S. apprenticeships grew 65% in a decade. Where the growth is, and what makes a state system actually work.
Equity

DEI After the Backlash

What's surviving, what's rebranding, what's working — separated from the comms.
Knowledge Hub

Remote Work, Year Six

The productivity case for blanket RTO was settled in 2023. What the data actually shows in 2026.
Knowledge Hub

Productivity Theatre

The most-instrumented workplaces in the world are not the most productive. A 2×2 for what to measure instead.
Job Search

The 2026 Job-Search Playbook

60–75% of knowledge-work hires above $80K come through the hidden market. Map, Signal, Sequence, Convert.
Lifelong Learning

Reskilling for Real

The worker-side playbook: diagnose what's at risk, stage the move inside your current job, pivot deliberately.

Career Development

The Mentorship Mismatch

Why most corporate mentorship programs fail to move promotion rates — and what sponsorship actually looks like.

Leadership

Leadership in the Augmented Workplace

The 2010s leadership-development industry trained managers for a workplace that no longer exists. The five-component new operating model.
Climate

Climate Jobs

Where the ~9 million projected new roles are actually coming from, what skills they require, and who gets them — IRA/CHIPS/BIL workforce pipeline reality check.
Caregivers

The Caregiver Workforce

53 million unpaid caregivers plus 4.6 million paid direct-care workers — the largest hidden industry in the U.S., with structural underpay and an absent federal policy floor.
Worker Rights

The New Labor Movement

After four decades of decline, U.S. worker power is being rebuilt — through sectoral bargaining, co-ops, algorithmic-management regulation, and the 2022–24 organizing wave.
Race & Equity

Racial Equity at Work

Where the race-gender gap actually lives — four mechanisms (sorting, hiring, place, within-firm patterns) and the interventions that move each.
Disability

Disability Inclusion at Work

The U.S. 38-point disability employment gap, why it persists, and the four interventions with the strongest evidence base for closing it.
Aging Workforce

The Aging Workforce

A quarter of the U.S. labor force is now 55 or older. The age-discrimination, ergonomics, and policy moves the data actually supports.
All NWLB Research → Browse the blog
State of the Worker Survey

Add your voice.

Take 10 minutes. Share your perspective on AI, work, and economic security — and get a free copy of the final report.

Start the Survey →
5Annual Work Congresses
30+Research Reports
25+Policy Partners
5K+People Impacted

Help us shape the policy of the AI economy.

Join the Think Tank as a researcher, contributor, or supporter.

Attend Work Congress Become a Research Partner