Artificial Intelligence and Strategic Change: A Process Model of Human-Enacted Algorithmic Management

About the seminar topic

Organisations increasingly use artificial intelligence (AI) applications to manage strategic change. We explore how algorithmic control is enacted in strategic change initiatives by conducting an inductive case study of 3 newsrooms within a European media company implementing a gender equality initiative. Despite a uniform AI algorithm and similar contextual conditions, the cases show marked variation, from resistance to deep transformation, shaped by how human actors engage with algorithmic systems. Our findings reveal that algorithmic control in strategic change is not simply imposed but socially enacted through intertwined sensemaking and organisational practices. These human-enacted algorithmic management processes shape how competing objectives are framed, how feedback is interpreted and how outputs are monitored. We contribute to algorithmic management research by shifting focus from isolated human-AI interactions to larger collective dynamics, explaining variance in outcomes and theorising how the interplay between human and machine agency shapes strategic change.

Speaker bio

Sebastian Raisch is Professor of Strategy at GSEM, University of Geneva. His research focuses on how large firms cope with the tensions between stability and change in their corporate development. He has worked and published on topics such as artificial intelligence, corporate growth and decline, corporate turnaround, organisational ambidexterity, organisational paradox and strategic change. Currently, he is very much interested in the digital revolution and how it affects organisations as well as our lives.

Sebastian’s work has been published in journals such as the Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Management Science, Organization Science and Strategic Management Journal. In recent years, he received several academic awards for his contributions to the ambidexterity literature including the Strategic Management Society’s Best PhD Paper Award, the Emerald Publishing Group’s Citation of Excellence Award, and the Journal of Management’s Scholarly Impact Award. Sebastian is Associate Editor at the Academy of Management Review and serves on the Editorial Boards of the Academy of Management Journal and the Strategic Management Journal.

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