Working with Artificial Intelligence (Weizenbaum Institute)

The project is part of the Weizenbaum Institute. The research group based there and associated with the WZB research group "Globalization, Work and Production" is investigates how work is changing through the use of AI.

Driven by technological leaps in the field of machine learning, AI is being applied in more and more areas of the working world. As a result, changes are expected in the way people and technical systems interact, in work content, work organization and qualification requirements. How these will affect working relationships and whether they will also lead to improvements for employees depends crucially on the design of the technology introduction. Despite the great social and political interest in this topic, there has been a lack of systematic analyses on the development and design of AI in the world of work.

Our research focuses on two questions:

• How do work processes change through the use of AI systems?
• What factors are important for the successful introduction of AI systems in companies?

To this end, the research group brings together different disciplinary approaches and uses qualitative methods (case studies and longitudinal studies), quantitative surveys, and experimental test setups on the collaboration between humans and AI systems.

The focus is on the forms and effects of AI systems in different work contexts (e.g. in industry, services, health, energy). Attention will be paid to the design processes, the operational framework conditions, the social preconditions as well as the subjective requirements and the perception of the employees.