• As scientific research becomes more complex and costly, AI can cut down expenses and time by taking over managerial duties aka algorithmic management.
• Research from ESMT Berlin shows how AI will elevate scientific research by replicating and surpassing human management.
• AI can effectively perform five important managerial functions: task division and allocation, direction, coordination, motivation, and supporting learning.

It wasn’t that long ago when AUTO from Wall-E and HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey were merely fictional concepts flashing on our screens. As Artificial Intelligence continues to advance rapidly, we step closer and closer to the day fantasy becomes reality.

You could say that day is already here.

It has been a short time since AI integration entered the mainstream world, with ChatGPT being introduced in November 2022 and Dall-E in January 2021, but it isn’t stopping there.

Soon, it’s likely we’ll see AI take its place in the world of management and leadership.

In a recent study, researchers Maximilian Koehler and Henry Sauermann from the European School of Management and Technology (ESMT) Berlin explored the reality of AI managing human workers to aid the productivity of scientific research.

AI: From worker to manager

The scope and complexity of scientific research is expanding faster than a speeding bullet and it’s due to this that scientific endeavours are becoming increasingly more expensive and demanding. As a result, we’ve seen research productivity start to decline. 

Koehler and Sauermann sought to find a solution to this ever-growing problem and turned to AI. They decided to explore whether or not AI could transcend from its role as a “worker” to taking on the role of a “manager”. It could already speed up literature reviews, identify research questions, help process large volumes of data, and predict new drug components.

The researchers investigated projects through online documents; interviewing organisers, AI developers, and project participants; and by joining some projects as participants.

This allowed the researchers to identify projects that use algorithmic management, to understand how AI performs management functions, and to explore when algorithmic management might be more effective.

By using algorithmic management in crowd and citizen science, which allows researchers to source large groups of people for low costs, Koehler and Sauermann found that AI was effectively performing 5 managerial functions, potentially surpassing human managers in:

• Task division
• Allocation
• Direction
• Coordination
• Motivation
• Support learning

Humans Still Prevail

Our greatest fear is that technology will take over us. Whilst, we’re not at Space Odyssey levels of advancement where a computer program can go rogue, AI is becoming adept enough that people fear whether or not they’ll have a job tomorrow.

Algorithmic Management isn’t here to steal someone’s job. It’s here to aid as a tool for human managers, taking on trivial tasks so human managers have more time to focus on the important stuff.

Sauermann says, “If AI can take over some of the more algorithmic and mundane functions of management, human leaders could shift their attention to more strategic and social tasks such as identifying high-value research targets, raising funding, or building an effective organisational culture.”

There are valid concerns surrounding AI but it’s also important to remember that it can be used for our betterment. After all, scientific research is integral to improving public health, the environment, and much, much more.

By Sharmin Ahmed

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