Marleen Huysman receives NWO grant to study the impact of AI on knowledge work

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5 August 2024

Marleen Huysman, professor of Knowledge and Organizations at VU School of Business and Economics, has been awarded funding from The Dutch Research Council (NWO) as part of the Open Competition - SSH. Huysman's research will focus on the consequences of integrating GenAI technologies in real-world work settings.

With the project 'GenAI@Work: Studying the Impacts of Generative AI on Knowledge Work, Management and Organizations' Huysman, jointly with Reza Mousavi Baygi, Ella Hafermalz, Anne-Sophie Mayer and Wendy Günther, aims to uncover the intended and unintended consequences of integrating GenAI technologies in real-world work settings.

With the rapid advancement of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) tools such as ChatGPT, Midjourney, Harvey, and Co-pilot, new ways of generating knowledge have entered work, organizations and society. This has sparked diverse reactions: some fear that technology might replace jobs, while others anticipate increased productivity and new avenues for creativity and innovation. While GenAI's radical capabilities might indeed justify such hopes and anxieties, the GenAI@Work project will focus on its more profound, indirect, and longer-term implications at the workplace.

GenAI@Work is a follow-up to the AIKnow open competition project, in which the AI@Work group studied how to develop AI in such a way that the work of professionals is augmented.

GenAI@Work consists of three research projects. One PhD project will explore how GenAI tools change knowledge creation, sharing, and validation and how these changes impact social structures within the workplace. Another PhD project will study how GenAI tools transform knowledge integration within and beyond organizations, and their effects on organizational structures and policies. The third project is a collaborative effort involving researchers from the AI@Work research group - Marleen Huysman, Reza Mousavi Baygi, Ella Hafermalz, Anne-Sophie Mayer and Wendy Günther. These researchers will explore eight organizations that are already using GenAI across various industries. Based on their findings, the team will develop practical guidelines for the responsible development, use, and management of GenAI at work.

About the NWO Open Competition

With the NWO Open Competition-SSH, NWO Social Sciences and Humanities wants to offer researchers the opportunity to carry out research into a subject of their own choosing without any thematic constraints. The funding instrument aims to serve a broader group of researchers in different stages of their academic careers.

Bas van der Klaauw and Nadine Ketel of VU School of Business and Economics also receive an NWO grant, for their research on the effects of lottery systems in education.

Jos van Ommeren of VU School of Business and Economics has been granted an NWO grant for his research into housing affordability and the effectiveness of various housing market policies in the Netherlands, Denmark, and England over the past 50 years.