The strategic impacts of Intelligent Automation for knowledge and service work: An interdisciplinary review

Abstract

A significant recent technological development concerns the automation of knowledge and service work as a result of advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its sub-fields. We use the term Intelligent Automation to describe this phenomenon. This development presents organisations with a new strategic opportunity to increase business value. However, academic research contributions that examine these developments are spread across a wide range of scholarly disciplines resulting in a lack of consensus regarding key findings and implications. We conduct the first interdisciplinary literature review that systematically characterises the intellectual state and development of Intelligent Automation technologies in the knowledge and service sectors. Based on this review, we provide three significant contributions. First, we conceptualise Intelligent Automation and its associated technologies. Second, we provide a business value-based model of Intelligent Automation for knowledge and service work and identify twelve research gaps that hinder a complete understanding of the business value realisation process. Third, we provide a research agenda to address these gaps.