Virtual assistants as support in knowledge work - the case of marketers

Virtual assistants as support in knowledge work - the case of marketers

Principal Investigator
Wiedza
prof. Aleksandra Przegalińska-Skierkowska
Overall budget
Koszty
709 080 PLN
Project duration
01.02.2022 - 31.01.2026
Funded by
Koszty
National Science Centre 2021/41/B/HS4/03664 OPUS

Artificial Intelligence is classified as a general purpose technology (GPT). This is the label used to describe technologies, such as the steam engine or the Internet, that have a significant, broad, lasting, and widespread impact on society and the economy. Such technologies can also generate numerous more specialized complementary innovations and other technologies.

Looking at the current development of artificial intelligence and its potential application of many sectors of the economy (from logistics to education to law to sales or medicine), there is no doubt that the growing use of automation and AI-based software will have a social and economic impact on organizations as well as on the labor market as a whole. The current debate about how artificial intelligence will affect the labor market is very vivid. There is a lot of concern that artificial intelligence algorithms will gradually displace workers from the labor market. It is true that robots and programs perform some tasks in which they are specialized, 24/7. It is mostly (but not only and not always) about performing repetitive tasks. On the other hand, as a recent study by IBM shows, developing artificial intelligence also allows for the creation of new jobs. Similar are the conclusions of a report presented by the World Economic Forum, according to which robots will help create almost twice as many jobs as they will take away.

This research project focuses on the introduction of artificial intelligence into business (and more specifically into marketing efforts). Artificial intelligence is not meant to replace human work, but to support it, making it more effective and satisfying. In this project we are investigating the concept and practical applications of so-called virtual assistants based on artificial intelligence. This will be a whole complex of qualitative research and experiments (including the use of sensors to capture the emotional state of participants), whose main goal is to shed new light on the various dimensions of human-machine collaboration in knowledge-based work environments. The following key activities are planned under this grant proposal:

1) Designing and development of a functional virtual assistant (we will use a state-of-the-art text generator based on deep neural networks, namely GPT-3)

2) Qualitative research: in-depth semi-structured interviews on the perception of human-AI collaboration at work

3) Quantitative study I: experiment verifying the impact of human-AI collaboration on productivity in tasks related to leading and creating marketing campaigns

4) Quantitative study II: replicating the experiment in the lab using psychophysiological measures, i.e., sensors to better understand subjects' emotions.

The research question is how the respondents perceive artificial intelligence in their work and what features of AI would be necessary for it to create synergies with employees.

We kindly inform that as a result of the evaluation of candidates participating in the call (no. 1/956/2022) for a National Science Centre Scholarship in the research project „Virtual assistants as support in knowledge work - the case of marketers” (no. 2020/37/B/HS6/02342) announced on January 11, 2022, Mr Konrad Sowa was awarded the NCN Scholarship.

Prof. Aleksandra Przegalińska-Skierkowska

Prof. Aleksandra Przegalińska holds the position of Vice-Rector responsible for International Cooperation and ESR and is also part of the MINDS (Management in Networked and Digital Societies) department at Kozminski University. She received a doctoral degree in the field of the philosophy of artificial intelligence at the University of Warsaw. She is a graduate of The New School for Social Research in New York, where she participated in research on identity in virtual reality, with special emphasis on Second Life. She received a scholarship from the Fulbright Foundation. She also worked during the Polish Presidency of the EU Council as chairwoman of the Audiovisual Working Party on behalf of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.

In 2016, she has started a fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In 2021, she became a Research Fellow in the American Institute for Economic Research (AIER), and since 2022 is a Senior Research Associate at Harvard University as part of the Harvard Labour and Worklife Program.