Abstract
Generative AI now performs parts of cognitive work through dialog, inference, and adaptation. These capabilities unsettle tool-centric theories of human–technology interaction and raise new questions about collaboration, oversight, and governance. We study how the enterprise AI is enacted by different organizational actors. Using interviews with engineers and managers, we inductively derive two use-modes: Core Task Augmentation (AI directly amplifies role-defining, verifiable production tasks) and Meta-Work Automation (AI offloads ancillary cognitive overhead like summarizing, templating, triaging around core judgments). We show how these modes co-vary with task formalizability, evaluation hooks, and oversight routines, and how they shape perceived capability and humanness of these AI tools. This work-in-progress paper explores when and why AI is experienced as an instrument versus a teammate, and how managers and engineers can organize governance and coordination around these distinct modes.
Recommended Citation
Jha, Abhishek Kumar and Ansari, Sana, "Organizing Around AI : Task Formalizability and Shifting
Nature of Human-AI Collaboration" (2025). ACIS 2025 Proceedings. 281.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/acis2025/281