PeopleofSuperintelligence

Public voice

Katie Wells

Also known as Katie J. Wells

Katie Wells is a geographer and tech policy researcher who studies how AI-powered gig platforms change work in cities and in healthcare. After a geography PhD at Syracuse University in 2013, she spent 2018 to 2024 as a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown University, following the work lives of Uber drivers in the D.C. metro area. With Kafui Attoh and Declan Cullen, she wrote Disrupting D.C.: The Rise of Uber and the Fall of the City, published in 2023, which won a 2024 PROSE Award in Cultural Anthropology and Sociology. Her 2024 Roosevelt Institute brief Uber for Nursing, written with Funda Ustek Spilda, found that AI-powered gig nursing apps encourage nurses to work for less pay and take little accountability for worker safety. She is Senior Fellow, AI and Healthcare, at the AI Now Institute, and in June 2026 she testified before a House subcommittee about gig nursing platforms.

Works
25
Citations
359
h-index
8

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 22 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 2013–2015

    A Syracuse geography PhD

    She earns a B.A. at Ohio State University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in geography at Syracuse University's Maxwell School, completing the PhD in 2013. As a postdoctoral researcher at Virginia Tech's Metropolitan Institute, she publishes a 2015 Antipode paper on a 1978 Washington, D.C. tax on residential speculation profits, the first such tax in the USA.

  2. 2018–2024

    Studying Uber drivers at Georgetown

    She begins a three-year postdoctoral fellowship at Georgetown University's Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor, funded by the Urban Studies Foundation, to continue a longitudinal study of Uber drivers in the D.C. metro area. She stays a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown from 2018 to 2024.

  3. August 2023

    A book on Uber in Washington

    With Kafui Attoh and Declan Cullen, she publishes Disrupting D.C.: The Rise of Uber and the Fall of the City with Princeton University Press in August 2023. The book argues that Washington, D.C., the first city to fight back against Uber, is where the company created a playbook for handling regulators and winning local politics. Many of the drivers the authors interview defend Uber from its critics.

  4. 2023–2024

    A PROSE Award

    Disrupting D.C. receives a Los Angeles Times honorable mention for best tech book of 2023. In 2024, it wins the PROSE Award category for Cultural Anthropology and Sociology.

  5. December 2024

    The Uber for Nursing brief

    As a senior fellow at Groundwork Collaborative, she coauthors Uber for Nursing: How an AI-Powered Gig Model Is Threatening Health Care with Funda Ustek Spilda of King's College London, published by the Roosevelt Institute in December 2024. Drawing on interviews with 29 gig nurses and nursing assistants, the brief finds that apps such as CareRev, Clipboard Health, ShiftKey and ShiftMed encourage nurses to work for less pay and take little accountability for worker safety.

  6. 2025

    Fairwork US platform ratings

    In 2025, she is Director of Research and Senior Fellow at Groundwork Collaborative and principal investigator of the Fairwork US project. Its March 2025 report, Fairwork United States Ratings 2025: When AI Eats the Manager, finds that most of the 11 US digital labor platforms it scores cannot show they meet basic standards of fairness.

  7. February–April 2026

    Joining the AI Now Institute

    In February 2026, the AI Now Institute announces that she is joining as a Senior Fellow to lead its work on AI and healthcare. In April 2026, the institute publishes Uber for Nursing Part II: How Gig Nursing Companies Are Lobbying States to Deregulate Healthcare, which she coauthors with Maya Pinto and Funda Ustek Spilda. The report finds that since 2022 lawmakers in at least seventeen states have introduced bills to regulate gig nursing platforms differently from healthcare staffing agencies.

  8. As of October 2026

    Senior fellow for AI and healthcare

    She is Senior Fellow, AI and Healthcare, at the AI Now Institute. In June 2026, she testifies before the House Subcommittee on Workforce Protections that gig nursing platforms target policymakers with legislation that upends worker protections and exposes patients to risks. She also joins Paris Marx on the Tech Won't Save Us podcast in June 2026 to discuss how healthcare gig apps resemble Uber's rollout.

Career

  1. Since 2026AI Now InstituteSenior Fellow, AI and Healthcare
  2. From 2024Groundwork CollaborativeSenior Fellow, Director of Research and Senior Fellow
  3. 2018–2024Georgetown UniversityPostdoctoral fellow
  4. 2013–2015Virginia TechPostdoctoral researcher

Education

  1. 2013Syracuse UniversityM.A. in geography
  2. Ohio State UniversityB.A.

From the biography and OpenAlex affiliations (the years of papers that list the organization), so some years are approximate.

Most-cited works

  1. “Just-in-Place” labor: Driver organizing in the Uber workplace2020 · Environment and Planning A Economy and Space · 141 citations
  2. “We’re building their data”: Labor, alienation, and idiocy in the smart city2019 · Environment and Planning D Society and Space · 101 citations
  3. Policyfailing: The Case of Public Property Disposal in Washington, D.C.2015 · ACME · 22 citations
  4. The work of waiting: migrant labour in the fulfillment city2024 · Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies · 21 citations
  5. The Folklore of the Freeway: Race and Revolt in the Modernist City2015 · The AAG Review of Books · 20 citations

From OpenAlex, as of 21 October 2026.

  1. Of 216 AI researchers who entered public life, 83 held advisory seats and 58 took public rolesIncludes Katie Wells. Of 216 AI researchers who entered public life, 83 held advisory seats and 58 took public roles. Another 97 people moved from public careers into AI organizations or research, with 62% of dated records starting from 2020 on.
  2. Google alumni have founded or led 133 other organizations, more than any other AI labIncludes AI Now Institute. We estimate that alumni of 17 major AI labs went on to found or lead 350 other organizations, including 226 they founded, and we trace 472 career moves directly between 23 labs since 2010.
  3. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other universityIncludes Georgetown University. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other university. We compare doctorate and 5+ year employment links, career timing and current workplaces for 187 major-prize and 1,111 best-paper winners.
  4. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes Georgetown University. We estimate where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led. Massachusetts Institute of Technology leads with 467 former students, including 291 recorded doctorates.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Katie Wells yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Video abstract - Katie Wells talks about "A Housing Crisis, a Failed Law, and a Property Conflict: The US Urban Speculation Tax" - Antipode Online antipodeonline.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  2. Katie Wells Joins KI to Research Work Lives of Uber Drivers | Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor | Georgetown University lwp.georgetown.edu. Checked 20 October 2026.
  3. Dr Katie Wells - Urban Studies Foundation urbanstudiesfoundation.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  4. Katie J. Wells - Roosevelt Institute rooseveltinstitute.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  5. Katie J. Wells et al., "Disrupting D.C.: The Rise of Uber and the Fall of the City" (Princeton UP, 2023) - New Books Network newbooksnetwork.com. Checked 20 October 2026.
  6. Uber and the Impoverished Public Expectations of the 2010s - The American Prospect prospect.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  7. AAP's PROSE Awards Announce the 2024 Category Winners - Publishing Perspectives publishingperspectives.com. Checked 20 October 2026.
  8. Uber for Nursing: How an AI-Powered Gig Model Is Threatening Health Care - Roosevelt Institute rooseveltinstitute.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  9. New Paper from Groundwork's Dr. Katie Wells Sheds Light on Pervasiveness & Pitfalls of Gig Nursing Apps - Groundwork Collaborative groundworkcollaborative.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  10. OII | New report reveals best and worst practices in the platform economy in the US oii.ox.ac.uk. Checked 20 October 2026.
  11. AI Now Team Updates - AI Now Institute ainowinstitute.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  12. Uber For Nursing Part II - AI Now Institute ainowinstitute.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  13. Gig work apps pushing to deregulate healthcare jobs, report warns htworld.co.uk. Checked 20 October 2026.
  14. About Us - AI Now Institute ainowinstitute.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  15. AI Now Senior Fellow Dr. Katie J. Wells Testifies before the House Subcommittee on Workforce Protections - AI Now Institute ainowinstitute.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  16. Silicon Valley Is Turning Nurses Into Gig Workers—With Katie J. Wells | The Nation thenation.com. Checked 20 October 2026.