Demystifying the future of knowledge workers: implications of Artificial Intelligence in academia

The Future of Work (FoW) has attracted increasing attention from scholars and practitioners. It refers to changes in work due to social and technological developments. One main technological development is the advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AI), which relates to machines that can perform tasks that normally require natural intelligence. Although intelligent machines are oftentimes thought to instigate the replacement of humans performing routine tasks, in current days, AI technologies are also deployed for more advanced tasks that are usually performed by knowledge workers. Building on expanding studies that have addressed the implications of technologies for knowledge work, we analyze the consequences of AI for academics. In our view, academics are prime examples of knowledge workers, but who, to date, have not been studied. We develop a research framework to study their future of work in relation to AI technologies and highlight state-of-the-art research findings to showcase the influence of AI. These findings show that AI technologies have implications for the teaching, research and services-related activities carried out by academics. Based on these developments we develop a future research agenda.