I like the dreams of the (distant) future better -managing the desirability and distance of AI imaginations in practice

Type
conference paper
Date Issued
2025-07-25
Author(s)
;
Abstract
Research on organizational futures often treats the qualities of imagined futures-such as desirability and distance-as inherent attributes. However, this perspective overlooks these qualities' constructed and contested nature in practice. This study addresses this theoretical gap by drawing on future-making research and investigating how the qualities of imagined futures are constructed and contested within organizations. Drawing on a 15-month ethnographic study of an AI implementation at an investment firm, this research analyzes the practices IT experts adopted to construct and influence the organizational imagination of the future. The findings reveal three pairs of opposing practices: (1) distancing and approximating, used to manage the perceived temporal horizon of the future; (2) abstracting and concretizing, employed to adjust the specificity and openness of the future's envisioned form; and (3) expanding and relating, which either broadened the scope of AI applications or anchored them in existing organizational practices. These practices triggered a vicious cycle of distant utopias, as overly optimistic and abstract imaginaries created escalating expectations, leading to further delays, distancing, and abstracting. This study contributes to research on organizational futures by demonstrating that the qualities of imagined futures are not intrinsic but constructed and dynamic. It also extends future-making research by identifying communicative practices that shape organizational imaginations and highlighting the interpretive role of second-order imaginaries in the political struggles of constructing futures.
Language
English
Keywords
Ethnography
Future
Future-making
Time and temporality
Artificial Intelligence
Event Title
AOM 2025 Annual Meeting
Event Location
Kopenhagen
Event Date
25.-29.7.2025
URL
Contact Email Address
lena.rieck@unisg.ch