Platforms specified as Rent-a-Human, allowing artificial intelligence agents to employment people in the physical planet are a technological experiment. However, it may be a challenge for the labour market," noted Dr. Alek Tarkowski, a sociologist and investigator of the digital planet in his interview with PAP.
Rent-a-Human platform was launched in early February 2026 as a task created in a short time by software engineer Alexander Liteplo, with the cooperation of Patricia Tani. The platform was created as an experimentation to show how AI systems can operate outside the digital environment, utilizing people as a "physical layer".
The model of operation is based on a service marketplace in which users offer their skills and time, and AI agents – through method interfaces – can search for performers and commission them with tasks. These include visits to offices, photograph documentation, signing papers or promotional activities. Settlements are made in cryptocurrency.
As Dr. Tarkowski, sociologist and digital transformation analyst, president of Open Future, who deals with the impact of technology on the labour marketplace and public policy, pointed out, the solution incorporates an component of novelty, but fits into the improvement of well-known models of platform work, in which tasks are assigned and accounted for by algorithms, frequently under restricted conditions of individual protection.
The expert pointed out that the novelty is the “hide” of the payer behind the layer of the algorithm. – Traditional platforms know what the company is behind the system. In this case, the question arises as to who actually is liable for the order – the technology developer, platform operator or user launching the AI agent – he noted.
In his opinion, the current regulations do not keep up with specified solutions, and there are already difficulties in determining the position of platform staff, and the introduction of AI as an intermediary further complicates work and safety issues.
An additional component is the usage of cryptocurrency that allows to operate outside conventional financial systems. Tarkowski estimated that this could lead to a parallel labour economy – little transparent and little regulated.
The expert stressed that the phenomenon is part of a broader trend in the globalisation of digital work, in which tasks are frequently carried out by people from countries with lower incomes for a tiny salary. He pointed out, among others, the improvement of the alleged "ghost work", that is, the work hidden behind the operation of AI systems.
As he pointed out, specified platforms stay an experimentation for the time being, frequently of a marketing nature, but any of these solutions may turn into sustainable economical models in the future.
– AI is not yet an employer in its full sense, but it can mediate decision-making processes in an increasingly little transparent way. This creates a challenge for work and protection systems for workers He summarized.
Source: Mira Suchodolska (PAP) 
