Measuring the Effects of AI in the Workplace: Co-Creating a Research Approach with Companies
As the relevance of artificial intelligence (AI) in the workplace continues to grow, the question of how employees perceive the use of this new technology at their workplace is becoming increasingly important. However, to date, empirical evidence on this topic is still scarce.
To address this research gap, firm-level data needs to be collected. The seventh ai:conomics Policy Brief provides a detailed description of how the close collaboration between academia and businesses can be successfully achieved. These valuable insights can serve as a guide for future research projects.
As part of ai:conomics, quantitative analyses were conducted to determine how employees evaluate hypothetical future versions of their jobs that will be changed by AI. This allowed for scientific conclusions to be drawn regarding which AI-induced workplace changes are preferred by employees. To achieve this, a transdisciplinary team of social scientists and communication experts collaborated co-creatively with various stakeholders from the participating companies.
All parties benefit from co-creative collaboration
The term co-creation describes a working mode centered around innovative multi-stakeholder processes, benefitting from diverse inputs from various different perspectives to create value and novelty.
The co-creative approach enabled effective communication, short feedback loops, and multiple iterations within and between teams. This allowed for the joint development of a survey instrument tailored to the unique and complex organizational contexts.
Companies gain specific insights into the perceptions and needs of their employees, which they can use for the implementation and evaluation of current and future AI tools. This can strengthen their efforts in preparing, supporting, and assessing AI projects.
Researchers benefit from co-creative collaboration by gaining practical and company-specific knowledge, which enhances the development of precise research instruments for measuring the impact of AI in the workplace. This, in turn, improves the effectiveness and significance of the results.
Co-Creation: A Suitable Approach Despite Challenges
The brief highlights why co-creation, despite significant challenges in the research process, served as an appropriate approach for the project. Iterative feedback loops, joint reflection, continuous testing and experimentation, as well as a collaborative partnership at eye level are identified as key success factors necessary to make co-creative approaches successful and to enable innovation.
