Peru creates AI and jobs commission to protect workers’ rights

Peru’s move is an example of a middle income country trying to get ahead of AI’s labour shock instead of reacting after the fact. By convening a formal commission on AI, automation and robotics in private employment, Lima is signaling that job protection, retraining and curriculum updates are political priorities, not side issues. That contrasts with some richer countries where AI debates are still dominated by frontier model capabilities and corporate lobbying.

For the broader race to AGI, these kinds of national commissions matter because they determine how much social license large scale deployments will have outside the OECD. If workers in Peru and similar economies see AI as synonymous with job losses and informality, governments may reach for blunt instruments like bans and moratoria. If commissions like this translate into concrete reskilling programs, updated labor codes and incentives for AI that complements rather than replaces workers, they can make advanced AI adoption more politically sustainable across the Global South.