Prof. Ansgar Richter, Dean of RSM said: “The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship is highly prestigious. And the topic of responsible transformation of work brought about by AI is highly relevant.”
The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Research Fellowship Programme support researchers at all stages of their careers, regardless of age and nationality. Researchers working across all disciplines are eligible for funding. The programme also supports co-operation between industry, academia, and innovative training to enhance employability and career development.
Dr Kamila Moulaï obtained her PhD in Management Sciences at Université catholique de Louvain in 2020. Titled Of Moves & Humans: Expatriation Journeys that Matter, it reconstructed the intra-organisational emancipatory project of highly qualified self-initiated expatriate workers. The aim of her new project funded by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Research Fellowship Programme is to provide the scientific knowledge that organisations need to adequately prepare their workforce to collaborate with artificial intelligence (AI) – and to do so responsibly. More about Kamila can be found here.
Unleashing AI potential for workers
The study will combine innovative and cutting-edge qualitative, quantitative, and conceptual methods to address the question of how to transform work responsibly to unleash AI innovative potential and ensure a bright future for workers.
“The project is not only highly scholarly innovative, it is also highly relevant for the competitiveness of EU firms and for EU workers – and will pay special attention to women,” said Dr Moulaï.
“Our interdisciplinary work tackles some of the most urgent issues on the global agenda, bridging the EU’s call to study future and emerging technologies with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal SDG 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.”
The future of work is still open
While there is no doubt that AI will bring about an unprecedented transformation of work, researchers are still hotly debating how it will do so. AI pessimists warn against massive unemployment and say AI risks deskilling and enslaving people. The AI optimists laud AI’s potential to improve working lives and to enable innovating as never before.
Dr Moulaï says that both camps seem to ignore the fact that the future of work is still open. “This future very much depends on how AI is deployed in organisations. The future of work can be bright for organisations and workers if organisations start responsibly reskilling and retraining workers to collaborate with AI right now, to unleash the extraordinary innovative potential of this new form of collaborations while providing workers with more meaningful work.
“Today, there is, however, close to no scientific work to guide organisations in responsibly transforming work when adopting AI. This interdisciplinary research project addresses this urgent gap.”
Dr Moulaï expects to start her research in September 2021.
