Creating human-technology synergies at the organizational frontlines

Abstract

• Agentic technology increasingly collaborates with employees at the organizational frontlines. • Creating human-technology (HUMTECH) synergies is essential for superior performance outcomes. • Three modes of human-technology collaboration—employee-led, technology-led, and co-led—give rise to HUMTECH synergies. • HUMTECH synergies require the existence, recognition, and enactment of complementarities between employees and technology. • Employee and technological readiness, metaknowledge, and various fit appraisals are key to HUMTECH synergies. Advanced technologies, including robotics and artificial intelligence, are radically transforming organizational frontlines. With rapidly expanding agentic abilities, these technologies increasingly collaborate with employees to co-produce the service and achieve superior outcomes, highlighting the importance of creating human-technology (HUMTECH) synergies at the organizational frontlines. However, the characteristics of these synergies and the process by which they emerge remain unclear. Drawing on cognitive appraisal theory and literature on complementarities, this paper offers a comprehensive understanding of HUMTECH synergies. We delineate three distinct modes of human-technology collaboration—employee-led, technology-led, and co-led—that give rise to HUMTECH synergies. Further, we provide a model that uncovers the three-stage process underlying the creation of HUMTECH synergies. Our model outlines how the emergence of HUMTECH synergies requires the a) existence, b) recognition, and c) enactment of complementarities between employees and technology, explicating the role of human and technological readiness, metaknowledge, and various fit appraisals for superior outcomes.