We used to worry about working for AI, but now it’s actually starting to hire humans to act as its 'hands and feet' in the real world.
April 13, 2026
Original Paper
Who Wants to be Rented? Rental Work and Digital Labour in the Age of AI
SSRN · 6560621
The Takeaway
New platforms allow AI agents to hire human workers to perform tasks in the physical world that software can't do. This flips the script on the digital economy, turning humans into 'biological peripherals' for autonomous computer programs.
From the abstract
This paper looks at the new ways that AI agents are embodying in the real world. Through the case study of a platform called RentAHuman, this paper discusses how embodiment is leading to the development of haptic connections between AI agents and the real world, and its consequences on labour markets and the society. This paper examines the case of RentAHuman.ai, a platform that allows AI agents to hire humans as bodies to perform real-world tasks that the AI agent itself cannot execute. The pap