Guest editorial

Citation

Walia, S. and Kautish, P. (2023), "Guest editorial", Foresight, Vol. 25 No. 1, pp. 1-3. https://doi.org/10.1108/FS-03-2023-259

Guest editorial for special issue – AI pushing the decision boundaries

First at the outset, the special issue editors would like to thank the editor-in-chief and editorial team for providing the opportunity to the authors to present their research work and to contribute in the scholarly endeavor. It was a pleasure working with a number of authors, contributors and different stakeholders.

In the backdrop of the current state of affairs, artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping businesses, economic activities and society at large by transforming human experiences with organizations, customers, employees within trade activities and AI-driven exchange relationships amongst varied stakeholders and citizens (Kautish, 2012).

Scholarly researches on AI have stemmed from different scholarly and practice-oriented fields of knowledge. Social scientists have been discussing ethical and legal implications of AI with respect to privacy and security related facets (Kautish, 2011), computer scientists have developed advanced deep learning algorithms to use its relevance in different walks of life such as medicine, energy, travel, education, banking, online learning, tourism, health care, retail, manufacturing, fashion, hospitality business and data sciences (Soni et al., 2011), whereas researchers in business management have studied the impacts of AI on customers, firms and stakeholders in an increasingly automated and interrelated business world.

The special issue attempted to focus on the futuristic approaches and innovations on the above disciplines. The research articles of high quality are considered to foster the research and innovation in the above social science disciplines (Kautish, 2016).

Despite AI’s promising developments in different industries, many firms struggle to effectively leverage (a combination of) these disruptive technologies to engage their stakeholders such as customers, employees, shareholders and society as large in novel AI-enabled experiences, empower them in decision-making from numerous facets, strengthen the brand relations and connect consumers with each other. So, this first edition of the special issue is presented to enlighten the audience with more details of the same.

This special issue includes eight papers that highlight different aspects of AI-driven decision-making of different stakeholders. It highlights issues concerning problems with adopting and prospects of achieving AI-based capabilities and organizational frontiers (Kautish et al., 2021). It also serves as a landmark by showing how different stakeholders may contribute and embrace AI-driven landscapes. It certainly will broaden and enhance the understanding of the latest trends in AI capabilities and capacity building activities (Kautish et al., 2022).

The first article with title “Automated decision making” aims to analyze three decision-making approaches that involve humans and artificial autonomous agents, namely, human “in the loop,” “on the loop” and “out of the loop” and identifies the decision characteristics that determine the choice of a decision-making approach.

Second research paper with title “Modelling the factors in the adoption of AI in Indian Management Institutes” aims to examine the organizational and other differentiating factors that can facilitate the adoption of AI in Indian management institutes and their interrelationship with societal implications include the delivery of better outcomes by Indian management institutes.

Third research article with title “Big data analytics capabilities and innovation effect of dynamic capabilities, organizational culture and role of management accountants” operationalizes to assess the impact of big data analytics capabilities on organizational innovation performance through process-oriented dynamic capabilities, as a mediator, as well as the moderating roles of organizational culture and management accountants, in the present AI-driven era. It explores the emerging trends and implications of the abovementioned relationships by focusing on these organizational relationships and stakeholder interactions.

Fourth paper with title “AI adoption by Human Resource Management: A study of its antecedents and impact on HR system effectiveness” attempts to explore and examine the determinants of AI adoption by human resource management and the underlying impact of AI adoption by human resource department on their effectiveness has also been tested.

Fifth research paper with title “Towards digital access during pandemic age: better learning service or adaptation struggling? aims to examine the digital access during the pandemic age through elaborating the extensive value of better learning service or adaptation for the online learning achievement amidst the pandemic age.

Sixth article with title “Implementing data analysis based on the mixed clustering technique for sustainable participatory waste management in a low-budget area” aims to provide a solution for sustainable community waste management in a low-budget location by using data mining techniques and a participatory research approach. The study showed that the guidelines were implemented and revised by members of the community, and this led to the development of sustainable community solid waste management for the future.

Seventh research article with title “Artificial intelligence and big data: ontological and communicative perspectives in multi-sectoral scenarios of modern businesses” attempts to exhibit how critical and vital AI and big data are in today’s world. Besides this, this paper also seeks to explore qualitative and theoretical perspectives to underscore the importance of AI and big data applications in multisectoral scenarios of businesses across the world. Moreover, this paper also aims at working out the scope of ontological communicative perspectives based on AI alongside emphasizing their relevance in business organizations that need to survive and sustain with a view to achieve their strategic goals.

Eighth research paper with title “AI adoption in the hiring process – important criteria and extent of AI adoption” aims to study and generate insights about AI adoption in hiring process of firms. It is very relevant when AI is dramatically reshaping hiring function in the changing scenario.