How Does the Implementation of AI Agents Affect Human Agents’ Job Profiles? Insights from Two Industrial Cases

Abstract

Traditionally, operators, system users as well as other non-management employees have been rarely involved in the design, planning, and construction of machines. With the recent dawn of deep learning ever more AI-based agents enter workplaces across industries. This trend is already affecting the way how employees interact with technology. In this paper we show that operative employees rather become co-creators while collaborating with AI agents. This affects traditional job profiles. The contribution of our research is twofold: Firstly, we discuss a novel approach of systematically evaluating how AI agents affect job profiles based on insights from two real-world industrial cases. Secondly, we provide new research perspectives for AI implementation in collaborative environments as well as for AI-related technological enhancements. These results can be fruitful for firms and decision makers as well as for academia, e.g., in fields like employee training, technology and innovation management, change management, applied machine learning and other.