Human-AI agency in the age of generative AI

Abstract

The rapid emergence of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is profoundly transforming the nature of work and organizations, challenging prevalent views of AI as primarily enabling prediction and optimization. This paper argues that GenAI represents a qualitative shift that necessitates a fundamental reassessment of AI's role in management and organizations. By identifying and analyzing four critical dimensions (i) GenAI's broad applicability as a general-purpose technology; (ii) its ability to catalyze exploratory and combinatorial innovation; (iii) its capacity to enhance cognitive diversity and decision-making; and (iv) its democratizing effect on AI adoption and value creation the paper highlights GenAI's potential to augment and scale human creativity, learning, and innovation. Building on insights from the AI and management literature, as well as on theory of human-AI agency, the paper develops a novel perspective that challenges the dominant efficiency-oriented narrative. It proposes that a human-complementary approach to GenAI development and implementation, leveraging it as a generative catalyst for exploration, can enable radically increased creativity, innovation, and growth. GenAI's democratizing aspects can amplify these mechanisms, promoting widely shared growth when combined with appropriate policy and managerial choices. Implications for theory, practice, and future research directions are discussed, drawing attention to the need for approaches in GenAI development and deployment that are complementary rather than competitive to human beings. The paper concludes by discussing the theoretical, practical, and policy implications of this transformative technology. It outlines future research directions, emphasizing the critical role of human agency in determining the organizational, societal, and ethical outcomes associated with AI adoption and implementation. • GenAI represents a qualitative shift from predictive AI. • A corresponding reassessment of AI's role in organizations and society is required. • Human-complementary approaches to GenAI can enable increased creativity and innovation. • Democratizing aspects of GenAI can amplify mechanisms for widely shared growth. • Human agency is critical in enabling and distributing AI gains.