Unpacking AI at work: Data work, knowledge work, and values work

IF 5.7 2区管理学 Q1 INFORMATION SCIENCE & LIBRARY SCIENCE

Information and Organization Pub Date : 2025-07-02 DOI:10.1016/j.infoandorg.2025.100584

Elmira van den Broek

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

The rise of data-driven artificial intelligence (AI) technologies has sparked intense debates about their implications for work. These discussions often portray AI as an agentic force that turns data into knowledge and ultimately, “better” decisions, casting shadows over the labor that sustains and supports these technologies. This paper argues that to develop a grounded understanding of how AI contributes to transformations in the workplace, we must unpack AI at work, that is, how algorithms are shaped by, and in turn, shape everyday work practices. Building on a longstanding tradition of research that examines the interplay between technology and work, this study foregrounds three types of work that gain renewed significance in the context of AI: data work, knowledge work, and values work. Drawing on the empirical example of hiring, this study illustrates how these forms of work are critical not only for understanding how AI technologies are brought to life but also for recognizing deeper, often unforeseen changes in the workplace. By surfacing the hidden, interrelated, and ever-evolving nature of work for AI, the AI at work lens put forward in this study offers critical implications for information systems and organizational research, as well as practical insights for practitioners, policymakers, and regulators.

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解析工作中的人工智能：数据工作、知识工作和价值观工作

数据驱动型人工智能（AI）技术的兴起引发了关于其对工作影响的激烈争论。这些讨论通常将人工智能描述为一种将数据转化为知识并最终“更好”决策的代理力量，为维持和支持这些技术的劳动力蒙上了阴影。本文认为，为了对人工智能如何促进工作场所的变革有一个有根据的理解，我们必须在工作中解开人工智能，也就是说，算法是如何被日常工作实践塑造的，反过来又塑造了日常工作实践。在研究技术与工作之间相互作用的长期传统的基础上，本研究展望了在人工智能背景下重新获得重要意义的三种类型的工作：数据工作、知识工作和价值工作。本研究以招聘为例，说明了这些形式的工作不仅对理解人工智能技术如何融入生活至关重要，而且对认识工作场所更深层次的、往往不可预见的变化也至关重要。通过揭示人工智能工作的隐藏、相互关联和不断发展的本质，本研究提出的人工智能工作视角为信息系统和组织研究提供了重要意义，并为从业者、政策制定者和监管机构提供了实用见解。

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来源期刊

Information and Organization Multiple-

CiteScore

11.20

自引率

1.60%

发文量

期刊介绍： Advances in information and communication technologies are associated with a wide and increasing range of social consequences, which are experienced by individuals, work groups, organizations, interorganizational networks, and societies at large. Information technologies are implicated in all industries and in public as well as private enterprises. Understanding the relationships between information technologies and social organization is an increasingly important and urgent social and scholarly concern in many disciplinary fields.Information and Organization seeks to publish original scholarly articles on the relationships between information technologies and social organization. It seeks a scholarly understanding that is based on empirical research and relevant theory.