Now showing 1 - 10 of 23
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Stairway to Heaven or Highway to Hell: A Model for Assessing Cognitive Automation Use Cases

2023 , Christian Engel , Edona Elshan , Philipp Alexander Ebel , Jan Marco Leimeister

Cognitive automation (CA) moves beyond rule-based business process automation to target cognitive knowledge and service work. This allows the automation of tasks and processes, for which automation seemed unimaginable a decade ago. To organizations, these CA use cases offer vast opportunities to gain a significant competitive advantage. However, CA imposes novel challenges on organizations’ decisions regarding the automation potential of use cases, resulting in low adoption and high project failure rates. To counteract this, we draw on an action research study with a leading European manufacturing company to develop and test a model for assessing use cases’ amenability to CA. The proposed model comprises four dimensions: cognition, data, relationship, and transparency requirements. The model proposes that a use case is less (more) amenable to CA if these requirements are high (low). To account for the model’s industry-agnostic generalizability, we draw on an internal evaluation within the action research company and three additional external evaluations undertaken by independent project teams in three distinct industries. From a practice perspective, the model will help organizations make more informed decisions in selecting use cases for CA and planning their respective initiatives. From a research perspective, the identified determinants affecting use cases’ amenability to CA will enhance our understanding of CA in particular and artificial intelligence as the driving force behind CA in general.

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Designfaktoren zur Wertmaximierung von B2B Datenaustausch in datengetriebenen Plattform Ökosystemen

2022-08-30 , Tingelhoff, Fabian , Elshan, Edona , Ebel, Philipp

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An Investigation of Why Low Code Platforms Provide Answers and New Challenges

2023-01-06 , Elshan, Edona , Dickhaut, Ernestine , Ebel, Philipp

Although the idea of low code development is not new, the market for these oftentimes platform-based development approaches is exponentially growing. Especially factors such as increasing affinity for technology development across all user groups, consumerization of development, and advancing digitalization are opening a new target group for the low code movement. The broad application possibilities of low code, as well as the benefits, are therefore getting more important for businesses. Especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), low code constitutes a promising avenue to survive and succeed in the rapidly changing world. However, a clear understanding regarding the application of this paradigm of software development in SMEs is still missing. To provide a coherent understanding of the phenomenon low code in SMEs, we review extant literature and conduct interviews, identifying potential application domains and conceptualizing the benefits and challenges of low code from a holistic perspective.

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Assessing the Reusability of Design Principles in the Realm of Conversational Agents

2022-06 , Elshan, Edona , Engel, Christian , Ebel, Philipp Alexander , Siemon, Dominik

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Leveraging Low Code Development of Smart Personal Assistants: An Integrated Design Approach with the SPADE Method

2023-03-31 , Elshan, Edona , Ebel, Philipp Alexander , Söllner, Matthias , Leimeister, Jan Marco

Smart personal assistants (SPAs) promise individualized user interactions owing to their varying interaction possibilities, knowledgeability, and human-like behaviors. To support the widespread adoption and use of SPAs, organizations such as Google or Amazon provide low code environments that support the development of SPAs (e.g., for Google Home or Amazon’s Alexa). These so-called low code platforms enable domain experts (e.g., business users without programming skills or experience) to develop SPAs for their purposes. However, using these platforms alone does not guarantee a useful and good conversation with novel SPAs due to non-intuitive design choices. Following a design science research approach, we propose the Smart Personal Assistant for Domain Experts (SPADE) method to address the missing link. This method supports domain experts in the development and contextualization of sophisticated SPAs for various application scenarios and focuses especially on conversational and anthropomorphic design steps. Our proof of concept and proof of value results show that SPADE is useful for supporting domain experts to create effective SPAs in different domains beyond private set-ups.

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The Rise of Generative AI in Low Code Development Platforms – An Analysis and Future Directions

2024-01-06 , Olivia Bruhin , Ernestine Dickhaut , Edona Elshan , Mahei Li

This study investigates the relationship between Generative AI (GenAI) and Low Code Development Platforms (LCDPs), providing preliminary insights into Gen's transformative potential in this context. It is based on expert interviews and provides insight into the changing landscape of LCDPs influenced by GenAI. The findings highlight the promising benefits of GenAI in LCDPs, such as increased efficiency and decreased errors, while also emphasizing the importance of human oversight and collaboration. The findings also highlight the importance of interpersonal skills in IT, even in an increasingly automated environment. While the economic efficiency and broader implications of GenAI are still being investigated, the study lays the groundwork for future research in this rapidly evolving domain.

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What to Learn Next? Designing Personalized Learning Paths for Re-&Upskilling in Organizations

2023-01-06 , Eva Ritz , Leonie Freise , Edona Elshan , Roman Rietsche , Ulrich Bretschneider

The fast-paced acceleration of digitalization requires extensive re-&upskilling, impacting a significant proportion of jobs worldwide. Technology-mediated learning platforms have become instrumental in addressing these efforts, as they can analyze platform data to provide personalized learning journeys. Such personalization is expected to increase employees’ empowerment, job satisfaction, and learning outcomes. However, the challenge lies in efficiently deploying these opportunities using novel technologies, prompting questions about the design and analysis of generating personalized learning paths in organizational learning. We, therefore, analyze and classify recent research on personalized learning paths into four major concepts (learning context, data, interface, and adaptation) with ten dimensions and 34 characteristics. Six expert interviews validate the taxonomy’s use and outline three exemplary use cases, undermining its feasibility. Information Systems researchers can use our taxonomy to develop theoretical models to study the effectiveness of personalized learning paths in intra-organizational re-&upskilling.

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Understanding the Design Elements Affecting User Acceptance of Intelligent Agents: Past, Present and Future

2022-01-04 , Elshan, Edona , Zierau, Naim , Engel, Christian , Janson, Andreas , Leimeister, Jan Marco

Intelligent agents (IAs) are permeating both business and society. However, interacting with IAs poses challenges moving beyond technological limitations towards the human-computer interface. Thus, the knowledgebase related to interaction with IAs has grown exponentially but remains segregated and impedes the advancement of the field. Therefore, we conduct a systematic literature review to integrate empirical knowledge on user interaction with IAs. This is the first paper to examine 107 Information Systems and Human-Computer Interaction papers and identified 389 relationships between design elements and user acceptance of IAs. Along the independent and dependent variables of these relationships, we span a research space model encompassing empirical research on designing for IA user acceptance. Further we contribute to theory, by presenting a research agenda along the dimensions of the research space, which shall be useful to both researchers and practitioners. This complements the past and present knowledge on designing for IA user acceptance with potential pathways into the future of IAs.

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Faster, Cheaper, Better? Analyzing how Lowcode Developoment Platforms drive Bottom-Up Innovation

2023 , Edona Elshan , Dominic Germann , Ernestine Dickhaut , Mahei Li

Recent years have seen a growing adoption of Low Code Development Platforms (LCDPs) in organizations. The increasing affinity for technology development across all user groups, consumerization of development, and advancing digitalization are opening up a new target group for the low code movement. This change in software development allows bottom-up user innovators within a company to leverage their domain knowledge and quickly deploy much-needed digital services. However, a clear understanding of this paradigm of software development in organizations and the influence on end-user acceptance is still missing. In this paper, we present the results of an interview study conducted with 18 LCDP experts and discuss the implications of our findings, highlighting the role of LCDPs and context in bottom-up innovation as well as user-centricity. Our research contributes to the literature on LCDPs and offers valuable insights for organizations looking to leverage their workforce's innovative potential.

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Artificial Socialization? How Artificial Intelligence Applications Can Shape A New Era of Employee Onboarding Practices

2023-01-06 , Ritz, Eva , Fabio, Donisi , Elshan, Edona , Rietsche, Roman

Onboarding has always emphasized personal contact with new employees. Excellent onboarding can extend employee retention and improve loyalty. Even in a physical setting, the onboarding process is demanding for both the newcomer and the onboarding organization. Remote work, in contrast, has made this process even more challenging by forcing a rapid shift from offline to online onboarding practices. Organizations are adopting new technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) to support work processes, such as hiring processes or innovation facilitation, which could shape a new era of work practices. However, it has not been studied how AI applications can or should support onboarding. Therefore, our research conducts a literature review on current onboarding practices and uses expert interviews to evaluate AI's potential and pitfalls for each action. We contribute to the literature by presenting a holistic picture of onboarding practices and assessing potential application areas of AI in the onboarding process.