In this special issue of the Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, we are calling for papers that advance the relationship between artificial Intelligence and the future of work. Artificial intelligence (AI) and its relation to work has arisen in our cultural discourse, notable to even a casual reader of contemporary news and media outlets. Technological breakthroughs in the field of AI promise to change the way we organize work (Jarrahi 2019). The artful integration of AI and work, however, remains an open challenge (Davenport and Kirby 2016); there is currently limited empirical understanding and research to guide the information community in this area—e.g., labor, motivation, cognition, machine learning, data science, human-computer interaction, and information science, among others—in coherent ways. Such interdisciplinarity is necessary if we are to push beyond assumptions and hype to open up possibilities for diverse and inclusive AI futures.
AI and the world of work are mutually shaping, meaning AI in the world of work and the world of work in AI do not represent a dichotomy with opposing forces (see Østerlund, Jarrahi, Willis, Boyd, and Wolf 2020). Each side collapses into the other under close scrutiny. Exploring AI futures and affordances entails an understanding of not only AI in the world of work but equally important, the world of work in AI. The world of work sneaks into AI in the form of big data feeding the algorithms, data management activities, the human labor necessary to train, maintain and repair AI products, changing workplace norms, ethics, and governance.
This premise encourages an exploration of the specificity and situatedness of AI and work. The information field has long been interested in workplace changes associated with rapidly increasing technological capabilities (technology in the world of work). Important questions to consider here are: what is new about AI and work that extends beyond IT and work? To what degree will AI in work reproduce existing structures or introduce new dynamics relative to the concepts of labor, agency, sensemaking, system fluidity, and opacity?
For this special issue, we seek submissions that extend our understanding of how we can better explain the interdependencies among work practices/activities, workers/social actors and AI capabilities, by specifically following sociotechnical approaches.
Articles can be drawn from any industry (e.g., retail, IT, service industries, public administration) or across multiple industries as long as they foreground the use and implications of AI in work or organizational contexts.
Different methodological approaches (e.g., quantitative, qualitative, and conceptual) are welcome. The topics of this special issue include, but are not limited to, empirical research and/or theory development in the areas of:
The transformation of work practices and service provision in a number of domains:
Human-AI interactions in work settings
AI and augmenting workers intelligence
AI and implications for information practices
The multiple scales at which such transformations take place-- including individual-, team/group-, organization-, and profession/occupation-level transformation:
Algorithmic management and decision making
Intelligent machines and interpersonal relationships at work
AI and transformation of organizational culture
AI and mass surveillance in organizations
The ethical implications of technology-enabled transformations such as job loss, the changing demands of professional readiness in the age of intelligent machines and their implications for educational curricula:
AI, automation, new jobs, education and upskilling
Digital labor, inequality and power
Data protection and privacy
Before submitting your manuscript, please ensure you have carefully read the JASIST Manuscript Preparation and Submission Guidelines (https://asistdl.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/hub/journal/23301643/homepage/forauthors).
The complete manuscript should be submitted through JASIST’s Submission System (https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jasist). To ensure that your submission is routed properly, please select “Yes” in response to “Is this submission for a special issue?” and specify “Artificial Intelligence and Work” when prompted later.
Details and deadlines for the paper development workshop can be found here.
Submission deadline: April 30, 2021
Mohammad Hossein Jarrahi; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Carsten Østerlund; Syracuse University
Christoph Lutz; BI Norwegian Business School
Matt Willis; University of Michigan
Karen Boyd; University of Maryland, College Park
Davenport, TH, and J Kirby. 2016. Only Humans Need Apply: Winners and Losers in the Age of Smart Machines. Harper Business New York, NY.
Jarrahi, MH. 2019. “In the Age of the Smart Artificial Intelligence: AI’s Dual Capacities for Automating and Informating Work.” Business Information Review. doi:10.1177/0266382119883999.
Østerlund, C, MH Jarrahi, M Willis, K Boyd, and C Wolf. 2020. “Artificial Intelligence and the World of Work, a Co‐constitutive Relationship.” Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology 61 (June): 5.