TY - JOUR
T1 - The Unknowability of Autonomous Tools and the Liminal Experience of Their Use
AU - Zhang, Zhewei
AU - Yoo, Youngjin
AU - Lyytinen, Kalle
AU - Lindberg, Aron
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 INFORMS
PY - 2021/12
Y1 - 2021/12
N2 - In the extant theoretical discourse on sociotechnical systems, the relationships between inputs and outputs of technologies are assumed to be knowable to human agents, occasionally ex ante and always ex post. Recently, a new breed of autonomous tools has emerged, which can independently learn and execute novel actions. The input–output relationships of these tools, however, are unknowable to human agents both ex ante and ex post. This calls for analysis of how humans experience the enactment of socio-material agency while interacting with autonomous tools. To this end, we conduct an exploratory, theory-building, comparative case study at one of the world’s largest semiconductor manufacturers. We investigate how chip designers interact with two families of design technologies: one following a traditional designer-centric approach in which the designer knows what outputs particular inputs to the tools will generate and another relying on autonomous tools that continually surprise the user. Our inquiry reveals significant differences in designers’ experiences of using different tools. When using autonomous tools, designers’ experience of enacting socio-material agency becomes liminal, a state of continuous emergence, in which interactions with the tools are marked by ambiguity, and the design is moved forward along multiple design trajectories in accordance with a multifarious temporality. These insights require us to expand upon several dominant views on the enactment of socio-material agency and necessitate novel thinking on the role and impact of autonomous tools in future work systems as well as on how design and innovation proceeds under such conditions.
AB - In the extant theoretical discourse on sociotechnical systems, the relationships between inputs and outputs of technologies are assumed to be knowable to human agents, occasionally ex ante and always ex post. Recently, a new breed of autonomous tools has emerged, which can independently learn and execute novel actions. The input–output relationships of these tools, however, are unknowable to human agents both ex ante and ex post. This calls for analysis of how humans experience the enactment of socio-material agency while interacting with autonomous tools. To this end, we conduct an exploratory, theory-building, comparative case study at one of the world’s largest semiconductor manufacturers. We investigate how chip designers interact with two families of design technologies: one following a traditional designer-centric approach in which the designer knows what outputs particular inputs to the tools will generate and another relying on autonomous tools that continually surprise the user. Our inquiry reveals significant differences in designers’ experiences of using different tools. When using autonomous tools, designers’ experience of enacting socio-material agency becomes liminal, a state of continuous emergence, in which interactions with the tools are marked by ambiguity, and the design is moved forward along multiple design trajectories in accordance with a multifarious temporality. These insights require us to expand upon several dominant views on the enactment of socio-material agency and necessitate novel thinking on the role and impact of autonomous tools in future work systems as well as on how design and innovation proceeds under such conditions.
KW - autonomous tools
KW - design
KW - digital innovation
KW - liminality
KW - socio-material agency
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85134699237&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85134699237&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1287/ISRE.2021.1022
DO - 10.1287/ISRE.2021.1022
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85134699237
SN - 1047-7047
VL - 32
SP - 1192
EP - 1213
JO - Information Systems Research
JF - Information Systems Research
IS - 4
ER -