A bibliometric analysis deconstructing research on how cognitive technologies affects man-machine collaboration.

Abstract

This paper addresses knowledge work challenges relating to emerging cognitive technologies. The field of research addressing artificial intelligence (AI), and related topics, is rapidly increasing. However, despite this emerging interest, the currently body of published research remains complex and unstructured. In particular, it remains to be understood how these technologies is implemented and cause changes in man-machine collaboration. To inform this issue, we conducted a bibliometric analysis of extant literature on AI and man-machine collaboration to take stock of extant published research in order to provide a foundation upon which both future theory and practice can be built. We based our analysis of an exhaustive structured literature search of published academic research in Web of Science (WoS) until 2020. Using the keywords digi* AND transform* OR artificial intelligence, 8 728 articles were identified. The bibliometric analysis enabled us first to identify 202 relevant articles published within the fields of business and management, and subsequently to further narrowing our scope to 25 core contributions using bibliometric coupling. A content analysis of these 25 articles revealed that whereas there is a lot of attention to the technological complexities related to the emerging cognitive technologies, there is to date limited empirical descriptions of the consequences for individuals, organizations or value creation of adopting these technologies. Our study identifies four important dimensions of man-machine collaboration; Knowledge worker, Organization, Market, and Society. Moreover, our findings reveal extant research is inconclusive with respect to the forces affecting these dimensions as different authors record both proactive forces and constraining forces associated with each of the four dimensions. Our contribution, as well as, the identification of a core canon of relevant research articles provides a foundation upon which future research and practice can be built by identifying core dimension and the forces acting upon them.