Shaping Collaboration Between People and AI Systems

The future of work is increasingly taking place in hybrid teams where people and intelligent systems work together. Artificial intelligence, automation, and digital collaboration platforms are noticeably transforming work processes. They are shifting roles, redistributing tasks, and shaping how collaboration is organized in everyday life. As a result, work is increasingly emerging from the interaction between people, AI, and digital infrastructures.

In this focus area, we examine:

how people can effectively collaborate with AI systems and automated decision-support tools,
how tasks can be sensibly distributed among people, AI, and other digital systems,
how hybrid teams consisting of people and AI agents can be organized and coordinated,
how digital collaboration platforms (e.g., enterprise social media) influence knowledge sharing, collaboration, and decision-making processes.

For us, the focus is not on technology for technology’s sake. What matters is whether and how new forms of collaboration truly support people in their work.

Research Projects

How is artificial intelligence changing the way people and technology work together? In our current and completed research projects, we are investigating how tasks, decision-making processes, and collaboration between people and AI systems can be structured in the workplace.

Project: Designing AI Agents and Human-AI Collaboration

The use of AI agents is fundamentally changing the way people and technology work together. Artificial intelligence is increasingly taking on independent tasks—from analysis and decision support to the automated execution of complex processes. This is giving rise to a new form of collaboration in which AI is no longer just a tool but is increasingly acting as a digital team member.

How is the use of AI agents changing collaboration within organizations? What roles do AI systems play in teams, what are the limits of automation, and how are responsibility, decision-making, and transparency changing in human-AI collaboration?

The project examines how companies integrate AI agents into their work processes and what organizational, cultural, and competency-related challenges arise in the process. In particular, it analyzes who is authorized to develop and deploy AI agents, how decision-making authority is distributed between humans and AI, and what competencies employees and managers need for successful human-AI collaboration.

The findings provide insights into how organizations can use AI effectively—not only from a technical perspective, but also from organizational and cultural standpoints.

Project: IT Development in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence is increasingly changing the way IT products are developed. Developers are already using AI systems in various phases of software development—such as programming, testing, and designing solutions. This is giving rise to new forms of collaboration between humans and AI.

How is the use of AI changing the work of IT professionals in the development of digital products? What new ways of working are emerging, and what challenges arise from the collaboration between humans and AI systems?

The project examines how IT professionals use AI in their daily development work and what changes this brings about in terms of roles, skills, and work processes. Based on a qualitative case study involving experienced IT professionals, the project analyzes new forms of human-AI collaboration in software development. The results show how development processes are changing and what role so-called AI orchestration—that is, the coordinated collaboration of multiple AI systems with human developers—could play in the future.

Selected Publications

Meier, F., Gatzlaff, F., Laumer, S. (2026): Rethinking How IT Professionals Build IT Products with Artificial Intelligence, MIS Quarterly Executive, 25, 1, 1-13

Contact Persons

The future of work takes shape where new technologies intersect with people and organizations. If you, too, would like to help shape the interaction between people and AI, we look forward to hearing from you.

Get in touch with us!