Human-machine collaboration in managerial decision making

Abstract

Although Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become a pervasive organizational phenomenon, it is still unclear if and when people are willing to cooperate with machines. We conducted five empirical studies (total N = 1025 managers). The results show that human managers do not want to exclude machines entirely from managerial decisions, but instead prefer a partnership in which humans have a majority vote. Across our studies, acceptance rates steadily increased up until the point where humans have approximately 70% weight and machines 30% weight in managerial decisions. After this point the curve flattened out, meaning that higher amounts of human involvement no longer increased acceptance. In addition to this overall pattern, we consistently found four classes of managers that reacted differently to different amounts of human versus machine involvement: A first class of managers (about 5%) preferred machines to have the upper hand, a second class of managers (about 15%) preferred an equal partnership between humans and machines, a third class of managers (about 50%) preferred humans to have the upper hand, and a final class of managers (about 30%) preferred humans to have complete control in managerial decisions. Practical implications and directions for future research are discussed.