Human-AI Hybrids in Virtual Teams: The Effects of IT Identity and Trust on Knowledge Sharing and Knowledge Application
As a significant unit for problem-solving and task execution, organizations increasingly rely on virtual teams for improved performance and competitive advantage. Organizations seek ways to increase virtual team efficiency and effectiveness through technology. Newer applications of artificial intelligence (AI) are driving organizational innovation, and organizations take notice. Nothing has brought this more sharply into focus than the COVID-19 pandemic. Three dynamics in play across organizations include increased virtual work for individuals, increased dependence on teams as the workforce moves online, and human-AI hybrid collaboration in executing tasks. Team performance among virtual team members depends on knowledge sharing and application during the execution of tasks. However, organizations struggle with identifying and eliciting knowledge and then applying that knowledge towards the problem or task at hand. Human-AI hybrids are emerging in the workplace with the potential to improve knowledge sharing and application, especially among virtual team members. Furthermore, AI has become a team member, or co-worker, in the form of an intelligent assistant providing relevant information when needed by aiding in knowledge sharing, application, and collaboration. This assistance is increasingly available to virtual team members conducting work in dispersed locations around the globe, yet little is known about the impact of human and AI interactions. A fresh approach may provide insights that expand our understanding of these relational interactions. IT identity forms the theoretical foundation for this research. With the paradigm shift to human-AI hybrids, this framework is a lens to understand human and AI relationships. The human-AI hybrid is a human and AI combining their respective competencies to perform tasks including capabilities for human interaction, locating knowledge in an organization or among team members, sharing contextually relevant knowledge when needed, and learning from experience. IT identity forms through daily interactions between human and AI as a person incorporates the AI into their self-concept. Differing results in the literature examining knowledge application create the need for continued research in this area. Additionally, there is a literature gap in understanding the impact of IT identity on trust, knowledge sharing, and knowledge application. Understanding these relationships may be central to increasing the effectiveness of human-AI hybrids in the workplace and, thus, improving performance.
Artificial Intelligence, intelligent assistant, virtual teams, knowledge sharing, knowledge application, IT identity, social identity, Management Information Systems
Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations