Paper Type
Complete
Paper Number
PACIS2026-1296
Description
Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping clinical practice in ways that challenge physicians' professional identity, authority, and trust relationships. This interpretive qualitative study examines how 22 Indonesian hospital-based physicians construct professional meaning around AI integration and how these sensemaking processes shape their role perceptions and engagement with AI. Drawing on socio-technical systems theory, sensemaking theory, and trust-in-automation research, we analyze in-depth interview data through a grounded theory approach. Four themes emerge (existential threat to professional identity, conditional acceptance and role redefinition, structural resistance to AI integration, and ethical accountability ambiguity) converging on the core category of negotiated coexistence: a practitioner-constructed equilibrium in which AI is conditionally integrated under physician-controlled terms while a safe zone of irreducible human clinical sovereignty is preserved. Theoretical contributions include the regulatory subsystem as an independent STS layer, domain-stratified trust heterogeneity, and hidden AI use as a self-report validity threat.
Recommended Citation
Arifin, Zaenal and Handayani, Putu Wuri, "How Artificial Intelligence Changes Physicians’ Role Perceptions in Indonesia" (2026). PACIS 2026 Proceedings. 3.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/pacis2026/ai_ethic/ai_ethic/3
How Artificial Intelligence Changes Physicians’ Role Perceptions in Indonesia
Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping clinical practice in ways that challenge physicians' professional identity, authority, and trust relationships. This interpretive qualitative study examines how 22 Indonesian hospital-based physicians construct professional meaning around AI integration and how these sensemaking processes shape their role perceptions and engagement with AI. Drawing on socio-technical systems theory, sensemaking theory, and trust-in-automation research, we analyze in-depth interview data through a grounded theory approach. Four themes emerge (existential threat to professional identity, conditional acceptance and role redefinition, structural resistance to AI integration, and ethical accountability ambiguity) converging on the core category of negotiated coexistence: a practitioner-constructed equilibrium in which AI is conditionally integrated under physician-controlled terms while a safe zone of irreducible human clinical sovereignty is preserved. Theoretical contributions include the regulatory subsystem as an independent STS layer, domain-stratified trust heterogeneity, and hidden AI use as a self-report validity threat.
Comments
03-EthicsSocietalImpact