When a new exhibition promises to explain “the future of work”, there is always a risk that it will simply repeat familiar headlines about robots replacing humans. That was why I entered the City Museum’s newest exhibition, Work / Next, with a fair amount of doubt. Museums are often excellent at displaying the past but less convincing when they try to predict what lies ahead. However, this exhibition turns out to be stronger than its title suggests. Rather than offering dramatic claims, it builds a thoughtful argument: the future of work will not be shaped by technology alone, but by the choices societies make about education, value, and access.
The exhibition is arranged in four main sections. The first looks back at earlier industrial changes, from factory production to the arrival of computers in offices. This part is useful because it reminds visitors that anxiety about new tools is not new. Letters from workers, newspaper headlines, and recorded interviews show that people in the past feared job loss, deskilling, and social change in ways that sound surprisingly modern. By beginning here, the museum avoids the common mistake of treating current concerns as completely unprecedented.
The second section is visually the strongest. Instead of placing machines on display as if they were magical objects, the curators focus on tasks. Visitors can compare how long different jobs take when done by a person, by software, or by a human using digital assistance. This creates a more realistic picture of automation. In several cases, the technology appears impressive but limited; it can speed up certain routines, yet it still depends on human judgment when situations become unclear. This is one of the exhibition’s greatest strengths, because it challenges the simple idea that jobs disappear in a single dramatic moment. More often, work is divided, redesigned, or shifted.
The third section, which deals with skills, is perhaps the most important. Here the exhibition argues that future employment will depend less on memorising fixed procedures and more on adaptability, cooperation, and decision-making. Interactive stations ask visitors to respond to changing workplace scenarios, such as managing customer complaints with the help of AI tools or organising a project across different time zones. These activities are not especially entertaining, but they are effective. They make the point that technical knowledge matters most when combined with communication and judgment. In other words, the exhibition suggests that “human skills” are not soft extras; they are central to modern work.
Still, Work / Next is not without weaknesses. Although it mentions inequality, it does not explore the issue deeply enough. The exhibition briefly acknowledges that access to training, reliable internet, and safe working conditions is not evenly shared, yet this point feels underdeveloped. A stronger section on who benefits from technological change — and who is left behind — would have made the overall argument more balanced. At times, the exhibition also seems too optimistic about institutions updating fast enough. Schools, employers, and public systems are encouraged to adapt, but the practical obstacles are only lightly discussed.
The final room is designed for reflection rather than information. Visitors are asked to respond to questions about what kinds of work they think society should value most in the future. This is a smart ending, because it shifts the conversation away from prediction and towards priorities. Care work, repair work, teaching, and public service all appear in visitors’ responses far more often than the exhibition’s opening marketing materials might lead you to expect. The effect is quietly persuasive. By the end, the exhibition is no longer mainly about machines; it is about what communities choose to reward, protect, and prepare people for.
Overall, Work / Next succeeds because it resists easy drama. It does not deny that automation will change employment, nor does it pretend that every worker can simply “reskill” without difficulty. Instead, it offers a more mature message: the future of work is not a fixed destination that will arrive on its own. It is a social project, shaped by policy, training, investment, and public values. For visitors who want simple answers, the exhibition may feel less exciting than expected. For visitors willing to think more carefully, that is exactly what makes it worth seeing.