Work

From generation to application: Exploring knowledge workers' relations with GenAI

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: Generative AI (GenAI), has taken the world by storm and shown extremely promising effects across different fields, ranging from legal to medicine. Why these systems seemingly are better than existing knowledge management systems and expert AI systems while being more decentralized, is intriguing. To shed light on this novel phenomenon, we study knowledge workers in practice, attempting to understand relational generation and application of knowing with ChatGPT through 12 semistructured interviews with early adopters of the technology. We show how knowledge workers and GenAI i) generate relations and ii) apply relations. The findings outline activities like censoring input to GenAI, composing prompts, checking output, making mistakes, and asking for help as constituent practices of relational knowledge work. Furthermore, we outline how ChatGPT is relational in nature, and suggest implications for practice.

Source: Journal of the Association for Information Systems

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.23058331

Authors: Ulfsnes, Rasmus, Mikalsen, Marius, Astri, Moksnes Barbala

Institutions: SINTEF, Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Language: English

Topic: Information Systems Theories and Implementation

Subfield: Sociology and Political Science

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funder: European Commission

Award: PROGRESS TOWARDS INDUSTRY 5-0: A SMART STUDY ON ANALYSIS AND IDENTIFICATION OF PRACTICES, DRIVERS, SUCCESS FACTORS AND OBSTACLES OF TRANSITIONS TOWARDS INDUSTRY 5.0.