Intelligent assistants have long been discussed as a possible application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to augment, supplement, or substitute for human knowledge and the brain. With the recent years’ technological advancement of computing power and Machine Learning, such applications are in earnest becoming a reality through AI models. We see increasingly more examples of assistants deployed in various work processes, for instance to assist or drive employment of the most ‘right’ employee, facilitation of the most ‘right’ student learning, or provision of the most ‘right’ treatment, thus optimizing the general work practice through Big Data and AI.

How are intelligent assistants designed to contribute with reliable knowledge in order to decide such contextual matters which often not are clear-cut right or wrong? What kind of partnership and delegation of competency are thus created in the human-machine collaboration produced? This PhD project examines these questions critically and sociotechnically through a deep dive into specific cases, and considers what and how AI adds to existing knowledge production and decision making in (knowledge-intensive) work practices, and whether this will affect for example knowledge and skills in organizations, fields, and society.