Digital innovation
![Abstract digital image of flowing blue data-like streaks curving across a black background. There is a blue 鈥榠nsights鈥� graphic overlay.](/images/resized/750x375-0-0-1-80-INSIGHTS_Digital_innovation_1.jpg")
Understanding how digitalisation is reshaping work and society
At 黑料社 University Business School, our research on digital innovation covers a wide range of topics, from platform workers to the metaverse, social media usage to hybrid working, and artificial intelligence to smart cities.
Explore our latest blog posts, podcasts, and reports, or browse our project pages to uncover actionable insights for leveraging digital innovation in your organisation or shaping forward-thinking policy decisions.
Spotlight blog posts
![Screenshot of report cover which has a black and blue background and the text: "Service Insights Ltd. Aspirations and applications of AI in social housing. 2025"](/images/resized/750x501-0-0-1-80-Untitled_6.png")
![Laptop with a globe resting on it](/images/resized/750x375-0-0-1-80-Laptop_globe_droplet800400.jpg")
![Working on a laptop](/images/resized/750x422-0-0-1-80-Working_on_computer800400.jpg")
![Person scrolling through photos on a phone whilst sat in a car](/images/resized/750x375-0-0-1-80-Social_media_on_phone.jpg")
![Virag Blazsek delivering her presentation in front of a "LegalTech in 黑料社 sign"](/images/resized/750x396-0-0-1-80-VB_LegalTech_picture_2025.png")
![A photo of Simon van Baal](/images/resized/750x750-0-0-1-80-_SKY1011_4.jpg")
View all digital innovation blogs here.
Podcast episodes
<iframe width="100%" height="450" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" allow="autoplay" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/playlists/1857797763&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=false&show_user=false&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true"></iframe><div style="font-size: 10px; color: #cccccc;line-break: anywhere;word-break: normal;overflow: hidden;white-space: nowrap;text-overflow: ellipsis; font-family: Interstate,Lucida Grande,Lucida Sans Unicode,Lucida Sans,Garuda,Verdana,Tahoma,sans-serif;font-weight: 100;"><a href="https://soundcloud.com/leedsunibschool" title="黑料社 University Business School" target="_blank" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;">黑料社 University Business School</a> · <a href="https://soundcloud.com/leedsunibschool/sets/digital-innovation" title="Digital innovation" target="_blank" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;">Digital innovation</a></div>
- “How to fix..." The 黑料社 Podcast – “”, Dr Alessandro Biraglia, February 2025
Video
- , Dr Mariana Estrada-Robles, Dr Alex Kevill and Dr Selen Kars-Unluoglu, December 2024 (Further information available on the .)
Reports and policy briefs
- Aspirations and applications of AI in social housing, Dr Simon Williams (Service Insights Ltd), Dr Nicky Shaw (黑料社 University Business School), Dr Emma Forsgren (黑料社 University Business School) and Stephen Blundell (Service Insights Ltd), September 2025. This report explores the relatively new phenomenon of AI in the English social housing sector, with the aim of better understanding how providers are applying AI in practice and how they aspire to use it in future.
- , March 2025. This report underscores the growth of the LegalTech sector and the increasing collaboration between legal service providers, technology firms and regional stakeholders, further solidifying the region as a hub for LegalTech and innovation.
- , Digital Futures at Work Research Centre, January 2025. This report presents an overview of Digit’s key findings over five years, focused on three central facets of the digital transformation of work.
- Policy brief: Pay and conditions in gig work, Professor Chris Forde and colleagues, September 2024. The policy brief draws on a wide range of research evidence to make recommendations for policymakers to improve working conditions in the gig economy. It also considers other precarious and insecure working arrangements, such as zero-hours contracts. The is also available, as is a blog post summarising the recommendations.
- , Professor Brendan Burchell, Professor David Spencer, Professor Simon Deakin and Professor Jill Rubery, September 2024. This report from the Digital Futures at Work Research Centre details how recent trials of a four-day working week show it can improve wellbeing and productivity, yet current policy rarely considers reduced working time as a strategy to address employment challenges, gender equality, and economic inactivity.
- , Professor Mark Stuart, Professor Danat Valizade, Dr Felix Schulz, Professor Brendan Burchell, Professor Richard Dickens and Professor Jacqueline O'Reilly, 2023. This report from the Digital Futures at Work Research Centre provides a comprehensive analysis of a nationally representative survey, addressing significant gaps in our understanding of how UK employers adopt and use AI-powered tools and software.
- Policy note: Enabling corporate innovation, Professor Krsto Pandza, 2020. This policy note is based on findings from a research collaboration between Ericsson AB and Professor Krsto Pandza.
Research projects
- ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work
- Knowledge Transfer Partnership with Katchr
- Knowledge Transfer Partnership with LBBC Group: The transition of digital culture in a UK manufacturing SME business
- Accelerated Knowledge Transfer with LBBC
- Knowledge Transfer Partnership with Clipper Logistics
- Mind the gap: investigating the transfer of digital capabilities from the classroom to the business in SMEs
- Industrial digital technologies for UK SME exporting manufacturers
- A Framework for Digital Strategy Work: Exploring Inclusion and Transparency in the Strategy Process
- Developing corporate innovation capabilities
- Knowledge Transfer Partnership with SR Mailing
- Knowledge Transfer Partnership with Johnson and Johnson Medical Limited: improving demand planning and forecast accuracy through digital sophistication and use of data
- Barriers and solutions to responsible applications of AI in mental health across cultures
- How do first-hand experiences and Problem Gambling Severity Index scores relate? Using natural language processing to enhance our understanding of text-based narratives
- Promoting sustainable digital consumption in the era of AI-driven social media marketing
- An Artificial Intelligence approach to financial vulnerability
- Understanding the view on data from the C-Suite before, during and after Covid-19
- Understanding the COVID 19 misinformation flow using artificial Intelligence (AI) based tools and citizen panels
- Establishing the feasibility of using machine learning to investigate UK company strategy and performance
- AI-powered sourcing tool for fashion and textile companies to assess environmental and social risks
- Predicting inequality from digital textual data
- Surgical Care Observatory (HealthTech Research Centre in Accelerated Surgical Care)
- Framing the future: how AI medical device companies develop innovation capabilities and shape market narratives
- 黑料社 Index of Platform Labour Protest
- Scan4Safety at 黑料社 Teaching Hospital NHS Trust: a longitudinal study鈥�
- Humans in Digital Logistics
- Adopting a Circular Economy Business Model for Resource Efficiency in ICT industry (ACE4ICT)
- Blockchain enabled Cloud Computing based integrated Carbon Calculator (Be4C)
- Gender, digital technology, and the future of work in India
- Transformational Impact of Digital Platforms Ecosystems on Global Value Chains accelerated by COVID-19
- Quality 4.0 and the Future of Assurance
- Climate change, social inequality & psychosocial wellbeing with emerging digital data – a multidisciplinary network between UK and South Korea
- Collaborative decentralised crowd innovation to address complex social problems
Contact us
To find out more about any of the above research, or how you can work with us in these areas, contact research.lubs@leeds.ac.uk.