Now showing 1 - 10 of 12
  • Publication
    Stairway to Heaven or Highway to Hell: A Model for Assessing Cognitive Automation Use Cases
    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.
  • Publication
    Leveraging Low Code Development of Smart Personal Assistants: An Integrated Design Approach with the SPADE Method
    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.
    Type:
    Journal:
    Scopus© Citations 6
  • Publication
    An Investigation of Why Low Code Platforms Provide Answers and New Challenges
    ( 2023-01-06) ;
    Dickhaut, Ernestine
    ;
    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.
    Type:
    Journal:
  • Publication
    Requirements for AI-based Teammates: A Qualitative Inquiry in the Context of Creative Workshops
    ( 2022-01-04) ;
    Siemon, Dominik
    ;
    de Vreede, Triparna
    ;
    de Vreede, Gert-Jan
    ;
    Oeste-Reiß, Sarah
    ;
    Innovation requires organizations to tap into the knowledge and creativity of teams. However, teams are confronted with massive amounts of data and information, necessitating a broad set of knowledge, methodologies, and approaches to solve problems and innovate. Consequently, team composition has become a critical challenge. Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) may assist in addressing this challenge. As AI is permeating both business and private sectors, organizational teams may be augmented with AI team members. However, given the nascent nature of this phenomenon, little is known about the specific roles and requirements for such AI teammates. Within an interview study we discover common challenges in teams and identify recurring capability gaps of participants and behaviors that negatively impact the team's collective performance. Based on our findings, we propose requirements for AI-based teammates to address these gaps and support beneficial collaboration between humans and AI in teams.
    Type:
    Journal:
  • Publication
    Examining the Antecedents of Creative Collaboration with an AI Teammate
    ( 2022-12-14)
    Siemon, Dominik
    ;
    ;
    de Vreede, Triparna
    ;
    Oeste-Reiß, Sarah
    ;
    de Vreede, Gert Jan
    ;
    With the advent of artificial intelligence (AI), individuals are increasingly teaming up with AI-based systems to enhance their creative collaborative performance. When working with AI-based systems, several aspects of team dynamics need to be considered, which raises the question how humans’ approach and perceive their new teammates. In an experimental setting, we investigate the influence of social presence in a group ideation process with an AI-based teammate and examine its effects on the motivation to contribute. Our results show a multi-mediation model in which social presence indirectly influences whether human team members are motivated to contribute to a team with AI-based teammates, which is mediated by willingness to depend and team-oriented commitment.
    Type:
    Journal:
  • Publication
    Opening the Black Box of Music Royalties with the Help of Hybrid Intelligence
    The ever-increasing complexity of the music industry and the intensified resentment of artists towards collecting societies call for a transformation and a change of behavior within the music ecosystem. This article introduces a hybrid intelligence system, that ameliorates the current situation by combining the intelligence of humans and machines. This study proposes design requirements for hybrid intelligence systems in the music industry. Using a design science research approach, we identify design requirements both inductively from expert interviews and deductively from theory and present a first prototypical instantiation of a respective hybrid intelligence system. Overall, this shall enrich the body of knowledge of hybrid intelligence research by transferring its concepts into a new context. Furthermore, the identified design requirements shall serve as a foundation for researchers and practitioners to further explore and design hybrid intelligence in the music industry and beyond.
    Type:
    Journal:
  • Publication
    Deploying a Model for Assessing Cognitive Automation Use Cases: Insights from Action Research with a Leading European Manufacturing Company
    Cognitive automation moves beyond rule-based automation and thus imposes novel challenges on organizations when assessing the automation potential of use cases. Thus, we present an empirically grounded and conceptually operationalized model for assessing cognitive automation use cases, which consists of four assessment dimensions: data, cognition, relationship, and transparency requirements. We apply the model in a real-world organizational context in the course of an action research project at the customer service department of ManuFact AG, and present unique empirical insights as well as the impact the application of the model had on the organization. The model shall help practitioners to make more informed decisions on selecting use cases for cognitive automation and to plan respective endeavors. For research, the identified factors affecting the suitability of a use case for cognitive automation shall deepen our understanding of cognitive automation in particular, and AI as the driving force behind cognitive automation in general.
  • Publication
    Moving Beyond Rule-Based Automation: A Method for Assessing Cognitive Automation Use Cases
    Facilitated by Artificial Intelligence technology, cognitive automation means to front and back offices what the pervasive automation through physical machinery and robots meant to production plants. Thus, we can automate tasks and processes that were unimaginable to be automated one decade ago. However, organizational adoption of cognitive automation is way below its possibilities, as this novel class of automation technology is perceived to be risky by organizations. This demands structured approaches for assessing the suitability of use cases for cognitive automation. Following the Design Science Research paradigm, we develop a method for assessing cognitive automation use cases. This enables practitioners to make more informed decisions on selecting, specifying, and embedding cognitive automation use cases in their organizations. For researchers, the method serves as a conceptual frame, which they can adapt to guide their empirical research or to use it for developing future decision support to shape the future of work.