Transition to Human-AI Work: Shifts in Routines' Dynamics and the Implications for Roles in Knowledge-Intensive Work

Abstract

As solutions based on artificial intelligence grow pervasive in knowledge-work organizations, such cognitive technology is being applied both to automate and to augment work heretofore carried out predominantly by humans. This has profound socio-technical implications for the work practices in that new means of conducting associated routines are changing the knowledge workers’ involvement, transforming interaction between the human agents and information systems within the socio-technical system. Taking a processual approach to exploring how such deep transformation extends to the core of the knowledge workers’ work roles, an interpretive study examined the role transformation unfolding over two years at a financial-accounting company that was developing and implementing an artificial-intelligence system for its services. This processual study offers empirically grounded contributions in outlining how digital transformation changes routines and work roles in knowledge-intensive work.