A Critical Inquiry into an Anthropomorphized Robot Entering the Workplace

Abstract

In this study, we analyse the entry of an anthropomorphized software automation robot into the workplace in a media consultancy company, a technology pioneer in its industry. Applying an affect lens, we explore how organizational members experience the entry of the AI-based robot and seek to understand the reasons behind its fortunes and misfortunes. We go beyond depicting ‘enthusiastic feelings of the management’ and ‘frustration of employees’ and highlight what consequences anthropomorphising AI may have on interaction between humans and machines, and ultimately on success of these technology projects. Understanding human-robot interaction and its consequences is not simply about distinctions between positive and negative affect. It is about distinctions rendered within ongoing interventions into affective organizational life. Our study has implications for understanding the contemporary technologized global economy that often neglects and downplays the role humans must play in what has been described the Second Machine Age.