Fox Earns NSF CAREER Award for Worker-Centered AI Design

July 23, 2025

Sarah Fox, an assistant professor in Carnegie Mellon University's Human-Computer Interaction Institute, has received a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support her research on artificial intelligence in the workplace.

The CAREER Award is the NSF's flagship program for early career faculty who demonstrate the potential to become academic leaders in both research and education. Fox earned the honor for her project, "Worker-Centered Design: Building Worker Voice Into the Present and Future of Work," which examines how AI systems can be developed to better support the needs and perspectives of frontline workers.

"I'm honored to receive the NSF CAREER Award in support of this work," Fox said. "As AI technologies reshape work in profound ways, it's essential that we center the voices of frontline workers — those most directly impacted by how these systems are introduced and experienced on the ground. This award will help us build more participatory approaches to AI design and governance that prioritize dignity, safety and meaningful labor."

Her work focuses on the food industry, where AI is increasingly used to automate service, food preparation and sanitation tasks. The project investigates the impact of technologies such as ordering kiosks, robotic kitchen tools and autonomous cleaning systems. Through fieldwork and participatory design, Fox's team will document how these technologies are introduced and adapted, and develop new prototypes that emphasize worker collaboration, safety and job satisfaction.

The research integrates ethnographic studies at food industry sites with interviews and participatory design workshops involving workers, managers and developers. Insights from this process will inform best practices for incorporating worker perspectives at each stage of the AI lifecycle, from design to oversight.

For more information, visit the NSF CAREER Award website.

For More Information 
Aaron Aupperlee | 412-268-9068 | aaupperlee@cmu.edu