Navigating Generative AI Promises and perils for Knowledge and Creative Work

Abstract

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) ability to perform tasks that previously required human judgment and creativity has the important potential to support knowledge and creative workers across a broad spectrum of tasks and projects. But it also raises concerns and implications for the future of knowledge and creative work. In this paper we explore the opportunities and challenges of GenAI for knowledge and creative work and the implication for future IS research. We explore the opportunities of GenAI, and the tensions it raises, for knowledge work in terms of four organizational capabilities: knowledge creation, knowledge storage, knowledge sharing, and knowledge application. We discuss the effects of GenAI on creative work in terms of three capabilities: creativity automation, modal conversation, and machine creativity.

Keywords: Generative Artificial Intelligence, Creativity, Knowledge workers, knowledge management, Large Language Models, Research Agenda, Image Generation Models