Real Subsumption and AI

Bravermans' Labor Process Theory in the Age of Algorithmic Management

Abstract

This paper reframes Harry Braverman’s labor process theory as the practical manifestation of Marx’s concept of real subsumption of labor under capital. Building on Braverman’s analysis of Taylorism, I argue that management functions as the mediator of real subsumption, depriving workers of production-related knowledge to facilitate capital’s control. However, the introduction of AI fundamentally transforms this dynamic. Drawing on examples from Japanese manufacturing, I demonstrate that AI enables capital to appropriate workers’ knowledge as data without encountering resistance, thereby eliminating the need for management as mediator. In this sense, AI represents real subsumption itself—embedded directly within the production process. I conclude by examining workers’ resistance movements around algorithmic control and argue, following Kohei Saito and André Gorz, that reclaiming ownership of knowledge is insufficient; workers must transform the very nature of production-related knowledge to overcome capitalist relations of production.