ARE MANAGERS BECOMING OBSOLETE? THE EMERGING UBIQUITY OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN THE WORKPLACE

Abstract

The implementation of Artificial Intelligence has become more prevalent in organizations over the last decade. AI will cause a fundamental shift in an organization’s operating mode on a variety of dimensions such as: how work gets done, including the design of business and decision-making processes, the nature of interactions within organizations, the skills that employees need to develop, and how managers function, lead and operate in this new era of digitization and automation. Because of the rapid changes that AI will bring to organizations, effective management practices will still be essential and maybe even more necessary than in previous eras of technological change. Thus, there is an opportunity to uncover those specific managerial tasks, capabilities, and mindsets that will lead to AI being a useful tool at a micro-level. Because AI tools are relatively in the early stages of adoption, there is little to no academic research on the role of the manager. Therefore, it is a timely topic, and research can make an early (and potentially unique) contribution to the management literature. The critical question that this study will attempt to answer is the following: “How Will the Manager’s Role Change Due to the Implementation of Artificial Intelligence?” The study will primarily focus on managers who oversee administrative functions or processes and are currently leading teams or organizations implementing AI. This research will be a mixed-methods approach starting with interpretivist case examples of several organizations applying AI along with a quantitative survey that will collect objective data.