Marah Blaurock
Publication
Designing Collaborative Intelligence Systems for Employee-AI Service Co-production
We are happy to share that the paper of our postdoctoral researcher and member of the IKID Team, Marah Blaurock, is accepted for publication at Journal of Service Research (JSR), the worlds leading service journal. The paper was developed in co-authorship with Marion Büttgen and Jeroen Schepers and focuses on the design and evaluation of employee-AI collaboration in the context of financial and HR services.
Abstract
Employees increasingly co-produce services with artificial intelligence (AI). Focusing on system design, this research uncovers (1) which system features qualify an AI system as a so-called collaborative intelligence (CI) system, (2) to what extent CI systems influence work-related employee outcomes, and (3) which CI features relate to which outcomes. Based on an extensive literature review and a qualitative study, we demarcate CI from related concepts―such as hybrid intelligence, collective intelligence, and human-AI teaming―and identify five relevant CI system features: engagement, transparency, process control, outcome control, and reciprocal strength enhancement. Employing two scenario-based experiments with financial services employees (N = 309) and HR professionals (N = 345), we demonstrate that strong CI systems (i.e., characterized by the aforementioned five features) significantly relate to perceived service improvement, perceived outcome responsibility, (threat to) meaning of work, and adherence to the system. Particularly, transparency, process control, and outcome control are important design features, while, surprisingly, engagement seems less relevant. We also identify previous AI experience of employees as an important contingency factor: effects are much stronger for AI novices. Our research contributes to service literature by defining CI systems, while practitioners may benefit from our blueprint for CI system design.
Keywords: collaborative intelligence systems, artificial intelligence, service co-production, employee-AI collaboration, AI design
Authors: Marah Blaurock, Marion Büttgen, Jeroen Schepers
Link to paper: https://doi.org/10.1177/10946705241238751