Chapter 2: AI at Work and in Society
Modern digital technologies have evolved from old world mental models that proclaim machine superiority over human intelligence; the unintended consequences of this are now showing up in suboptimal systems development and implementations. Organizational leaders considering investing in AI technologies need to go beyond a superficial understanding of the technology and commit to a balanced strategic approach toward building holistic human-machine systems. In this chapter we work though the different AI definitions, ideologies and world views that are shaping the current discourse on AI. We highlight the key findings of an extensive literature review that maps the critical success factors of AI implementations which are: strategic sassiness, organizational rewilding, technology reimagined, and human fearlessness. Key message in Chapter 2: Be sassy.
Research into the next generation of augmented human and artificial intelligence is in the early stages of development, particularly in the specialised area of human-machine collaboration in complex environments. The field is challenged by research fragmentation, a lack of generalisability of results across research and application domains, systemic challenges with algorithmic models and limitations in machine learning training data. There is a lack of critical research on AI capability for value creation and pressing ethical challenges that have been inadequately addressed.
The field of AI is challenged by a range of different world views and ideologies that are muddying the waters when it comes to access to objective, fact-based research for leaders to utilise in their organisation. When we peel away the hype, we can see that these challenges are contributing to the unsatisfactory return on investment and slow corporate take-up rates of AI technologies. The potential benefits of AI technologies are undeniable however they are still largely underdeveloped and require the maturity that more multidisciplinary approaches to building robots human-machine systems. Research points to the reality that value-creation may be in the human, organisational and strategic ecosystems that supports and utilises AI technology rather than in the technology itself.
Entanglement-AI 