AI-ENABLED SOCIAL MEDIA COMMUNICATION AND EMPLOYEE KNOWLEDGE CREATION

Abstract

However, the fast adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the workplace communication environment has fundamentally changed employee collaboration and knowledge creation methods. It is a research study into how AI-driven social media communication with its tools, including intelligent chatbots, recommendation algorithms, and natural language processing, can influence the creation of knowledge by an employee in an organizational context. The study is based on the constructivist paradigm and the phenomenological approach to examine the lived experiences of 20 professionals working in knowledge-intensive industries in Lahore, Pakistan. Semi-structured interviews provided data, which were evaluated with the help of the thematic analysis, which showed that there were 5 main themes, including: AI as a Catalyst for Knowledge Visibility: AI exposes tacit knowledge and converts it into explicit, searchable data. Algorithmic Mediation and Trust: There is a spectrum of trust with one end having employees appreciating AI in terms of routine efficiency, and the other end of the spectrum having employees doubting its ability to think through complex problems. Augmented Collaboration: AI is a thinking partner, so responsive to cognitive capacity and helping to carry out the externalization and combination stages of the SECI model. Problems of Algorithmic Overload: Algorithms were found to cause cognitive overload and a sense of displacement anxiety over the extent of AI taking over human judgment and the threat of automation bias. Ethical Consciousness: An increasing need in the human-in-the-loop approaches to achieve efficiency in machines and human autonomy and privacy. The results indicate that although AI-enabled social media would be a powerful resource in knowledge discovery and structural capital, it would present a paradox of empowerment versus surveillance. The research finds that to make organizations support a sustainable innovation culture; they should strike a balance between algorithmic efficiency and ethical governance and retention of human creativity.