社会学评论. 2026, 14(4): 116-139.
Whether artificial intelligence inevitably leads to labor deskilling remains a subject of ongoing debate. Existing studies have largely centered on the logic of automation and substitution, portraying platform work as low-skilled and easily replaceable, thereby giving rise to a widely accepted yet insufficiently examined “deskilling myth.” This study redefines skill as an integrated outcome of workers’ embodied practice (hand), cognition (head), and mental commitment (heart). While technology may replace bodily operations and explicit knowledge, it cannot easily substitute for tacit knowledge and the spirit of craftsmanship embedded in human labor. Drawing on ethnographic research on the everyday work of food-delivery couriers, this study finds that experienced riders rely heavily on intuitive judgment in order selection, time estimation, route planning, and customer interaction, while consistently maintaining an intrinsic commitment to service quality and professional responsibility. These long-existing yet often overlooked capabilities, obscured by algorithmic management and technological narratives, demonstrate that skill has not disappeared in highly algorithmic platform work. By providing empirical counter evidence to the deskilling myth, this study offers a new perspective for understanding labor skills in the age of artificial intelligence.
