Journal article
The future of office and administrative support occupations in the era of artificial intelligence: A state of the art review and future research directions
International journal of industrial ergonomics, Vol.104, 103665
11/2024
DOI: 10.1016/j.ergon.2024.103665
Abstract
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that by the year 2029, the United States will lose a million jobs in the office and administrative support occupations because technology, automation, and artificial intelligence (AI) have the potential to substitute or replace the office and administrative functions performed by office workers. Despite the potential impact AI will have on office work and the important role office workers play in the American economy, we have limited knowledge of the state of the art research in office work at the intersection of emerging artificial intelligence technologies. In this study, we conducted a bibliometric analysis of the scholarly literature at the intersection of office work, office automation and artificial intelligence. We extracted literature sources from Compendex and Scopus databases and used VOSviewer for visualizing and quantifying our bibliometric analyses. Our findings from keywords analysis indicate that office automation, humans, human-computer interaction, and artificial intelligence occurred more frequently in the scholarly literature and had high link strengths. Keyword clusters from co-occurrence analysis indicate that intelligent buildings, robotics, and the internet of things are emerging topics in the office work domain. The two clusters related to ergonomics, worker characteristics, human performance, and safety indicate the types of human factors concerns that are more widely studied in office work settings. In summary, our findings on the state-of-the-art research in office work indicate that more studies have been conducted on smart buildings, robotics, and technology development for office work, compared to studies on office workers and their professional development.
This review on the state-of-the-art in research on office work is relevant in every industry that has the potential to undergo significant changes due to AI in the future.
•Artificial Intelligence will upend the administrative and office support workforce.•Current studies focus on smart buildings, robotics and technology development.•Office worker-centered studies needed to inform professional development efforts.•Future of work design efforts should investigate how AI can support office workers.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- The future of office and administrative support occupations in the era of artificial intelligence: A state of the art review and future research directions
- Creators
- Priyadarshini R. Pennathur - The University of Texas at El PasoValerie Boksa - Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Seamans Center for the Engineering Arts and Sciences, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, 52242, USAArunkumar Pennathur - The University of Texas at El PasoAndrew Kusiak - University of IowaBeth A. Livingston - University of Iowa
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- International journal of industrial ergonomics, Vol.104, 103665
- Publisher
- Elsevier B.V
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.ergon.2024.103665
- ISSN
- 0169-8141
- eISSN
- 1872-8219
- Grant note
- National Science Foundation: 2128495
We thank National Science Foundation for supporting this work under grant #2128495. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author (s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foun-dation. We would also like to thank Dr. Marina Zhang for assisting with the literature search.
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 11/2024
- Academic Unit
- Management and Entrepreneurship ; Nursing; Industrial and Systems Engineering
- Record Identifier
- 9984747819202771
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