Artificial Intelligence Adoption and Appropriation: Focusing on Users When Studying Technology
The introduction of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools is having a disruptive impact on business environments, revolutionizing their current paradigms and dramatically speeding up their digital transformation process (Cimino et al., 2024). These advanced AI systems are able to learn, adapt and generate content, redefining the meaning of innovation and enabling companies to automate complex creative tasks that once required human time and intellect (Miller, 2023; Felicetti et al., 2024).
With that in mind, this special track will explore artificial intelligence (AI) appropriation, with a focus on generative AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT), examining how individuals and organizations adapt these technologies to their varied needs. The term “appropriation” refers to the way users adopt and personalize AI tools, integrating them into their work routines and social practices (Nguyen et al., 2021). Specifically, this track emphasizes a user-centered approach to technology adoption, exploring how individuals personalize AI systems to enhance creativity, problem solving and decision making within organizations. Indeed, although the technical implementation of AI tools is crucial, their true value lies in how users effectively appropriate them to solve concrete challenges (Miller et al., 2023). Several studies (e.g., Thomas et al., 2024) have shown that the progress of technologies is due more to the way they are used rather than the initial function for which they were designed. In fact, the adoption of a specific technology is influenced by several factors related to the social environment, users’ cognitive abilities and individual motivations (Camilleri et al., 2024).
It follows that it is important to explore how individuals and teams incorporate these technologies into their work routines, changing their practices, decision-making processes and collaborative efforts. This understanding must go beyond the investigation of surface-level adoption, but must delve into the ways in which users adapt, modify and customize AI technologies to meet specific needs, thereby fostering new potential for creativity, productivity and innovation.
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
- Appropriation and personalization of AI technologies
- Challenges users face when trying to adapt AI tools to their needs;
- Emerging opportunities arising from the personalized use and appropriation of AI tools
- Impact of AI appropriation on business and creative processes
- The role of AI appropriation in redesigning traditional workflows and creating new operational and business models in organizations
- How AI stimulates new forms of creative output and generates innovative ideas within organizations
- The role of AI in the transformation of creative processes and intellectual work
- Factors and challenges related to AI appropriation
- What factors influence the process of user appropriation of AI technologies
- How user appropriation affects the development and continued evolution of AI tools
- Ethical and social challenges in the personalization and use of AI tools
Serena Filippelli, University of Parma, Italy
Barbara Bigliardi, University of Parma, Italy
Antonio Cimino, University of Messina, Italy
Virginia Dolci, University of the Republic of San Marino, San Marino
Vincenzo Corvello, University of Messina, Italy