Am I Even Needed? Navigating Through Role Changes in the Age of Artificially Intelligent Agents

We explore through the eyes of organizational members how job roles are transformed by the introduction of a chatbot we refer to as an AI-powered agent. Our inductive study employing methods of constructivist grounded theory, draws from research material collected at a well-established multinational firm in the retail financial services industry located in Northern Europe. Our research shows how pervasive the introduction of an early-stage AI technology can be when it cuts across many functions in the organization, generating new roles, transforming existing ones and creating tension in how different employee groups perceive the changes. In our case company, these tensions are reflected in metaphorical roles, AI as a villain, hero and a fool, bestowed on the AI-powered agent by employees as they cope with the changes and the uncertainty related to the future. Our study captures the complex and far-reaching nature of job role changes triggered by the integration of what at first appears to be a simple, early-stage AI-powered agent serving customers and performing what were formerly repetitive human tasks.