Abstract

COVID-19 has brought organizations to reinvent their businesses due to the greater need: employees and customers safety. This paper explores managers’ perceptions of the adoption of AI in the workplace. It considers how they construct new technology adoption and the potential it has to be integrated into work practices. This research in progress paper contributes to the information systems literature by taking a qualitative approach to better understand managers’ perspectives of AI and the contextual factors that influence their decision to adopt. Semi-structured interviews were used to study managers’ perceptions and experiences through which AI might have been considered supportive or a job threat. Overall, pre-liminary findings showed that managers have dealt with technologies that have helped them to perform their managerial duties. However, most of them have displayed doubts related to trust and interpersonal complexity. Interviews unanimously stated that AI cannot (completely) replace managers, but it is of interest how they also highlighted the uncertainty of AI and its future. Future research will further explore the complexities of AI adoption using Cultural-Historical Activity Theory as a framework to understand the transformation of organisational activities through socio-technological practices.

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