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Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems are entering professional, social, and civic contexts at a rapid rate. While AI is not new, the data and computing power that are now available are creating opportunities as well as threats for the future of work, with applications that were for a long time merely hypothetical. At AI@Work we will bring together scholars from disciplines that have a stake in this phenomenon, to explore how AI is impacting the present and future of work, as well as what might need to change. Each academic discipline has its own track (see below), giving space to explore local concerns. But since we see benefit in discussing relevant topics across disciplines, we will group successful submissions thematically. That way, participants will be exposed to ideas and developments from other fields, a format that is ideally suited to the interdisciplinary nature of the AI@Work phenomenon and conference.

AI is increasingly being used in the workplace to automate tasks, as well as to make personnel decisions about whom to recruit, hire, retain, promote and discipline or discharge. This implementation of AI at work has significant economic and legal implications. We invite all stakeholders (included but not limited to academics, law and policymakers, worker representatives and technology companies) to submit papers across a range of research topics relating to the economic effects and legal implications of adopting AI technologies in the workplace. We welcome a variety of research methods and disciplinary approaches, including theoretical exploration and empirical studies (both qualitative and quantitative). Possible topics could include:

• How does an employer’s use of AI affect the work that its employees do, or other aspects of the employment relationship?
• When AI is used to make employment decisions, what is the impact on employee privacy and nondiscrimination rights?
• How does an organization’s use of AI affect its organizational structure?
• How does the GDPR’s regulation of automated decision processes affect the use of AI in the workplace?
• What can be learned from the GDPR about the possibilities and limits of direct regulation and the alternatives available for addressing the economic and legal impacts of AI?
• How might the effects of AI differ across occupations and industries? Which ones will gain and which ones will lose?
• What will be the effect of AI on inequality?

The current state of computer science research considering the application of AI in social and work environments requires more socio-technical perspectives that integrate social sciences, humanities and technology. We welcome a variety of research methods and disciplinary approaches, including theoretical exploration and empirical studies (both qualitative and quantitative). We invite scholars and practitioners working at the intersection of computer science and other disciplines to present papers across a range of topics, including but not limited to the following:

• What work and innovation is needed to address the needs and interests of online workers in designing AI systems?
• How to improve diversity in the composition of teams and how these make engineering decisions?
• To what extent and how should we revisit the typical design pipeline to ensure AI systems have beneficial, safe and just outcomes?
• How can we adopt and adapt software engineering methods and documentation to address the practice, needs and social requirements of AI developers?
• How to integrate certification and regulatory frameworks in the design of AI systems?
• How can we build more reflective practices for developers that help them address social implications, going beyond ethics checklists?
• How to integrate and/or actively involve expert researchers’ learnings from history of science and Science and Technology Studies?
• Methods and policies for dealing with bias and discrimination and for designing for accountability, transparency, inclusion, privacy, justice, etc.
• Distributed AI applications, e.g. making use of edge computing and federated learning
• Integration of increasingly automated and intelligent systems with humans in collaborative environments
• Methods to facilitate a human-centric approach to AI at work considering human factors and humans-in-the-loop

We welcome papers that explore the impact of AI technologies on how professionals and organizations cope with the emergent changes in their work, and how managers and organizations respond. We welcome papers based on empirical studies (both qualitative and quantitative) as well as conceptual papers. A non-exhaustive list of relevant research topics includes:

• How do intelligent machines automate, augment and informate work and organizational processes?
• How are changes in the nature of work afforded by AI technologies?
• What questions does AI raise regarding responsibility, ethics and justice in the public and private sector?
• How does AI professional expertise and the evolution of professions?
• How does AI shape knowledge work, and how knowledge is acquired and shared in organizations?
• The consequences of AI and algorithmic management for how workers are managed and how they respond and perform
• Questions about accountability and decision making, and how AI has consequences how workers, managers and organizations make decisions and pursue accountability
• The impact of AI on individual creativity and management of innovation
• Culture and the impact of AI on organizational culture
• The relationship between AI and the organization of work and value chains, including the emergence of labor platforms
• How AI implementation and use creates new forms of work and has unintended consequences
• Effects of the emergent work changes on organizational boundaries, business models and entrepreneurship

AI plays an increasingly important role in our economy and is in fact more and more in control of us. The far-reaching digitization of labour due to AI already raises fundamental ethical and societal issues, such as job polarization and unemployment.  Most of us are unprepared for this rapidly changing world of working. Should humans make a diligent effort to remain relevant in the workplace of the future? If AI/robots will take over our jobs, where do the humanities stand? We invite researchers, policy makers and representative of businesses to present papers which investigates these questions, and among others, the following questions:

• What human work is still remaining and what is the effect on our human dignity?
• Will the implementation of AI into recruitment lead to inclusion or exclusion of some groups?
• Will ‘being human’ ensure resiliency in an era of disruption of the labour market?

Those wishing to participate in the conference by presenting a research paper/report are requested to submit an extended abstract (around 800 words) by October 18, 2019 CEST. Applicants should include their title, institutional affiliation, and indicate the division to which their work belongs (business, labour law & economics, humanities or computer science).  Abstracts should be sent to submissions@reshapingwork. You may also contact Marleen Huysman (m.h.huysman@vu.nl) with any questions you may have about scholarly contributions to this conference. Notification of acceptance will be sent in the first half of November 2019.

AI@Work 2020 will take place on March 5th & 6th, 2020 in Amsterdam. For updates and practical information, please consult our website: ai.reshapingwork.net. Early-bird tickets go on sale on October 15. To ensure you stay up-to-date, please sign up for our newsletter or follow us on Twitter.

• Marleen Huysman, VU University/KIN Center (Head of the Scientific Committee)
• Pauline Kim, Washington University School of Law and Robert Seamans, NYU Stern School of Business (Division Labour Law & Economics)
• Virginia Dignum, Umeå University and Roel Dobbe, AI Now Institute (Division Computer Science)
• Mikkel Flyverbom, Copenhagen Business School and Stella Pachidi, University of Cambridge (Division Business)
• Lambèr Royakkers, Eindhoven University of Technology and Jeroen van den Hoven, TU Delft (Division Humanities)