The conversation about the future of work often focuses on a single question: How many jobs will technology create or eliminate?
But for millions of workers, there is another question that matters just as much: Can technology make the jobs they already have better?
A newly released national workforce study led by Jobs for the Future (JFF) and their partners at Gallup and the Families & Workers Fund, found that for the second year in a row, only about four in 10 U.S. workers hold jobs that meet basic standards for financial stability, opportunities for growth, worker agency, safe and respectful working conditions, and stable, manageable schedules.
That gap has consequences for workers and businesses alike. Employees in non-quality jobs were nearly twice as likely to leave their employer within a year (15% vs. 8%), and 16% say they are very likely to leave in the next year—more than twice the rate of those in quality jobs (7%). The study estimates that replacing a frontline worker costs about 40% of their salary, rising to 200% for managers.
Yet much of the conversation about technology and the future of work remains centered on automation, efficiency, and reducing labor costs. We believe there is another opportunity worth paying attention to: using technology to help people become more skilled, productive, and economically mobile while helping employers get more value from the workers they already have.
Job Quality Is an Investment Opportunity
Too often, job quality is treated primarily as a social impact objective rather than a driver of business performance. But the two are increasingly connected. Companies need skilled, adaptable employees to remain competitive, while workers need stability, opportunities to build skills, and pathways to advance economically. A lack of growth opportunities is one of the strongest predictors of employees planning to leave, second only to poor workplace culture.
For us, that creates an important area for innovation. Technologies that help employers develop and retain their workforce, while helping workers build skills and advance, can create measurable value on both sides. The opportunity isn't simply to make work more efficient; it's to make workers more capable, productive, and valuable and ensure they have a share in the benefits.
AI makes this opportunity more urgent. As it automates routine tasks and reshapes entry-level roles, traditional pathways to career advancement are changing. Workers without access to new tools and training risk being left behind. The study found that 74% of workers with a high school diploma or less have never used AI at work, compared with 29% of those with graduate degrees.
But AI can also help close those gaps. Learning and skill development no longer require workers to step away from their jobs or enroll in traditional programs. AI-powered tools can make learning more personalized, accessible, and integrated into daily work; helping workers develop new capabilities while helping employers strengthen their existing talent pipelines.
Investing in Solutions That Make Work Better
At JFFVentures, we invest in early-stage, technology-enabled companies that expand economic mobility for low- and middle-wage workers while solving real problems for the employers, educators, and institutions that serve them.
Several companies in our portfolio illustrate what this can look like.
Pace AI helps adult learners and workers build English-language proficiency and communication skills through personalized, AI-powered learning. Language can be a significant barrier to advancement for frontline workers, and Pace makes skill development more accessible and relevant to everyday work. In a Miami-Dade County Public Schools study of its districtwide rollout to 1,600 adult ESL learners, those using Pace saw 23% higher learning gains than peers who started at the same English proficiency level.
BoodleBox is helping learners and workers build the AI fluency increasingly required across industries. As AI becomes embedded in more jobs, the ability to use these tools effectively will influence who benefits from the productivity gains they create. Expanding access to those capabilities is an important part of ensuring that AI doesn't widen existing gaps in opportunity.
Modo approaches the challenge from the employer side, helping companies better understand, develop, and mobilize the talent they already have. Its AI-powered platform is designed to help employees build skills and navigate opportunities all in the flow of work while giving employers greater visibility into workforce capabilities and development. It reflects a shift from viewing talent primarily as a cost to manage toward treating workers as assets worth developing.
These companies address different parts of the workforce ecosystem, but they share a common idea: technology can create value for businesses and institutions while giving people greater access to the skills and opportunities they need to advance.
What Better Work Looks Like
For us, the opportunity isn't simply to invest in technologies that make work more efficient. It's to back companies where better outcomes for workers and stronger outcomes for businesses reinforce one another.
That shapes how we evaluate workforce technology. We ask founders questions like: Does your product create a real pathway to economic advancement? Can customers measure improvements in retention, productivity, or skill development? Does the technology expand workers' capabilities and opportunities? And do workers have a voice in how the technology is used?
These questions matter because creating economic value doesn't always require creating a new job. A technology that helps an employer retain experienced employees, develop talent internally, or help workers become more productive and advance can generate meaningful business value while improving the quality of work.
The American Job Quality Study findings expose a substantial gap between the jobs Americans have and the jobs they need. Closing that gap will require employers, educators, policymakers, technology companies, and investors to think differently about how work is designed and how people prepare for it.
For us, that gap also represents an opportunity: to back companies solving persistent workforce challenges in scalable, commercially sustainable ways.
The next generation of successful workforce companies may not be defined by how many jobs they eliminate or create, but by how much better they make the jobs that already exist.
Are you building a workforce technology that improves job quality? Learn how we invest here.