Switching Between Automation and Augmentation: Exploring the Human-Technology Interaction in International Decision Making, a seminar by Dr Stefano Elia (Politecnico di Milano)

Switching Between Automation and Augmentation: Exploring the Human-Technology Interaction in International Decision Making

By Dr Stefano Elia from Politecnico di Milano

Abstract:

The rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) reinforces the so-called automation-augmentation paradox. This paradox refers to the inherent tension that AI replaces human tasks with technology for efficiency (automation), while at the same time requiring human oversight to enable unique capabilities at the human-machine interface (augmentation) that enhance decision-making. Yet, in an era of human-technology interface, scholars have argued that research should move away from considering automation and augmentation as two opposing and non-reconcilable forces that shape complex decisions – and call for exploratory approaches that enable us to define how decision makers approach an automation-augmentation balance when enacting decision-making under specific task-related and contextual demands. Responding to this call, we use a Q methodology to explore how different decision makers’ viewpoints (or logics) around the automation-augmentation paradoxical tension are shaped by two elements of task and context: task codifiability (whether the task is by nature descriptive vs. predictive vs. prescriptive) and contextual stake intensity (defined as the degree to which regulatory, cultural and ethical constraints demand human oversight to not place managerial reputation at risk). Twenty-eight Italy-based managers with international decision-making sorted a 33-statement Q-set spanning descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive tasks across geopolitical/regulatory constraints, local cultural adaptation, managerial legitimacy, and ethical responsibility concerns. Our results, in conjunction with post-sort qualitative interviews, reveal three main managerial viewpoints on balancing automation and augmentation – context-sensing guardians, lean-automation pragmatists, and strategic co-pilots – each of which has distinguished switching patterns between automation and augmentation in international decision-making. Overall, our study expands knowledge on the automation-augmentation paradox, by claiming that these two seemingly contradictory forces can be reconciled based on the dynamic nature of “task” and “context”, so as to gain a more nuanced understanding of the multifaceted nature of the human-AI interface in complex decision-making.

About the speaker:

Stefano Elia, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor at Politecnico di Milano (Italy) and Rector’s Delegate for International Relations with Europe. He has held visiting positions at the University of Sydney, the University of Reading, the University of Leeds, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University. His research focuses on multinational firms’ location and entry strategies, global value chain resilience and reconfiguration, microfoundation and behavioral economics, AI and international business, and emerging-market multinationals. He authored several book chapters and refereed articles in leading international journals, including, among others, the Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Management Studies, Global Strategy Journal, Journal of World Business, Journal of Economic Geography, Economic Geography, International Business Review, Journal of International Management, Industry & Innovation, Journal of Business Research, and Management International Review.