Worker and workplace Artificial Intelligence (AI) coexistence: Emerging themes and research agenda

Abstract

Workplace Artificial Intelligence (AI) helps organisations increase operational efficiency, enable faster-informed decisions, and innovate products and services. While there is a plethora of information about how AI may provide value to workplaces, research on how workers and AI can coexist in workplaces is evolving. It is critical to explore emerging themes and research agendas to understand the trajectory of scholarly research in this area. This study's overarching research question is how workers will coexist with AI in workplaces. A search protocol was employed to find relevant articles in Scopus, ProQuest, and Web of Science databases based on appropriate and specific keywords and article inclusion and exclusion criteria. We identified four themes: (1) Workers' distrust in workplace AI stems from perceiving it as a job threat, (2) Workplace AI entices worker-AI interactions by offering to augment worker abilities, (3) AI and worker coexistence require workers' technical, human, and conceptual skills, and (4) Workers need ongoing reskilling and upskilling to contribute to a symbiotic relationship with workplace AI. We then developed four propositions with relevant research questions for future research. This review makes four contributions: (1) it argues that an existential argument better explains workers' distrust in AI, (2) it gathers the required skills for worker and AI coexistence and groups them into technical, human, and conceptual skills, (3) it suggests that technical skills benefit coexistence but cannot outweigh human and conceptual skills, and (4) it offers 20 evidence-informed research questions to guide future scholarly inquiries.