My coworker the AI : investigating the impact of artificial intelligence on organizational culture on the example of a chatbot case study

Abstract

There is a surging trend among organizations to introduce artificial intelligence-based assistants to workplaces. Usually, such assistants’ function is to perform a part of the employees’ work. Most of the research on AI revolves around the topics of technologically induced unemployment, and labor market restructuration, but little light is shed on the ways the introduction of AI to workplace impacts employees’ wellbeing, social dynamics at the workplace, and organizational culture of the company overall. To find out these impacts the case study of a Finnish enterprise was conducted. The case study helped to answer the research question and find out the way employees view the impact of AI on their organizational culture. The findings demonstrate that deployed internal Slack chatbots help create and reinforce the organizational culture of the enterprise. The chatbots’ cultural value was found to be not only in liberating employees from menial repetitive tasks, but also in the improvement of manager-subordinate relationships, in serving a community building function, in flattening of the organizational hierarchy and in eliminating unproductive work-related communicative exchange. This study bridges and makes a contribution to the fields of AI and organizational studies.