Getting serious with AI: Managerial challenges when absorbing an emerging technology

Abstract

Over the past few years, AI adoption has increased significantly among organizations, and managers are faced with more and more decisions and work tasks that relate to AI. Recognizing that AI as an emerging technology may have important consequences for perceptions of human-technology relations, agency, and the future of work, we set out to explore how managers work with the technology as it is adopted in their organizations. A qualitative study based on 26 semi-structured interviews was conducted with previous participants in an educational AI program for managers. Analyzed through a theoretical framework based on an integration of absorptive capacity, sociomateriality and change as collaborative play, the empirical findings suggested that the managers use “playful testing” as a means of increasing AI use in their home organizations, but that factors such as agency attribution and organizational obstacles may detract from its degree of use and impact. Finally, the study contributes theoretically by broadening absorptive capacity as a dynamic capability by linking it to playfulness.