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Welcome to AIS Insights

Research for the AI Transformation
The AIS Insights editors · AIS Insights · 2026
  • AIS Insights, an initiative of the Association for Information Systems, brings current Information Systems research to practice, where leaders need it most in times of AI.
  • Every insight starts from a question digital leaders face in practice, answers it with the study's findings, and says what they mean for five roles: CIO or IT executive, IT manager, business strategist, researcher and policymaker.
  • Each study comes three ways: the key question and findings to read, a short episode to listen to, and its core idea in one visual, all in eleven languages.
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79 insights from AIS journals, conferences and related outlets

Illustration for: How can digital experimentation platforms help city leaders make better, more adaptive urban sustainability policies?

Key question

How can digital experimentation platforms help city leaders make better, more adaptive urban sustainability policies?

How to Cope with the Dynamics of Urban Sustainability: Urban Experimentation Platforms as Tools for Adaptive Policy-Making
Rehm, McLoughlin, Donnellan · ECIS · 2022
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive Audit current urban data platforms to ensure they include incoming feedback channels from local experimentation trials, rather than functioning solely as one-way broadcast tools.
  • IT Manager Configure dashboard alerts to aggregate and flag real-time stakeholder feedback and usage metrics from ongoing urban sustainability pilots.
  • Business Strategist Initiate a meeting with municipal authorities and local business ecosystem partners to design a recurring framework for collaborative problem-solving using platform data.
  • Researcher Apply system dynamics modeling to map the existing stakeholder feedback loops within your city's active urban experimentation platforms.
  • Policymaker Review the latest data reports from active local sustainability trials and draft a plan to update an existing municipal policy based on the trial results.
Operations & Supply Chain
Illustration for: What causes organizational inertia during digital transformation, and how does it block successful change?

Key question

What causes organizational inertia during digital transformation, and how does it block successful change?

Understanding Inertia in Digital Transformation: A Literature Review and Multilevel Research Framework
Haskamp, Dremel, Marx, et al. · ICIS · 2021
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive Audit your portfolio for socio-technical legacy IT misalignments by scheduling a joint review with department heads to identify legacy systems anchoring obsolete business routines.
  • IT Manager Map your team's current project workflows against the five inertia attributes to pinpoint where cognitive and behavioral rigidity is slowing down daily software deployment.
  • Business Strategist Review the 12 documented inertia antecedents against your current transformation roadmap to identify which cultural and structural barriers threaten your upcoming business model renewal.
  • Researcher Formulate a new empirical study focusing on the interactions between individual-level cognitive inertia and organizational-level structural inertia during enterprise cloud migrations.
  • Policymaker Draft guidelines for state-backed digital grants that require organizations to explicitly account for socio-technical and cultural inertia mitigation strategies before receiving funding.
Operations & Supply Chain
Illustration for: How do sending and receiving emails shape employee stress and productivity?

Key question

How do sending and receiving emails shape employee stress and productivity?

Email stress: Towards a new understanding of its causes and impacts
Stich · Systèmes d'Information et Management · 2025
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive On Monday morning, initiate a discussion with your direct reports and heads of departments to explore piloting a specific email management training program for all employees, focusing on techniques that address both sender eustress and receiver distress, as outlined by the TMES model.
  • IT Manager On Monday morning, review the current email client settings and identify opportunities to implement or enhance features that automatically categorize or filter incoming emails based on sender or keywords, thereby reducing receiver distress for your team.
  • Business Strategist On Monday morning, draft a proposal for a new organizational communication norm that encourages concise and action-oriented email content from senders, aiming to maximize sender eustress by clearly delegating tasks and minimizing receiver distress caused by ambiguity.
  • Researcher On Monday morning, begin drafting a research proposal to empirically test the TMES model by designing a study that measures sender eustress and receiver distress across different organizational contexts and email usage patterns.
  • Policymaker On Monday morning, schedule a meeting with key stakeholders to discuss the development of an organizational policy that mandates specific email etiquette training, emphasizing balanced sender and receiver perspectives as informed by the TMES framework.
Cloud & Infrastructure
Illustration for: How do algorithms delegate work to groups of humans on digital platforms?

Key question

How do algorithms delegate work to groups of humans on digital platforms?

When Algorithms Delegate to Humans: Exploring Human-Algorithm Interaction at Uber
Stelmaszak, Möhlmann, Sørensen · MIS Quarterly · 2024
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive On Monday morning, initiate a review of our current platform architecture to identify all instances of multi-agent algorithmic systems and assess their delegation models, specifically looking for 'distributed delegation' patterns to ensure human input is integrated effectively.
  • IT Manager On Monday morning, schedule a technical deep-dive with your team focused on one specific algorithmic system that delegates to humans; analyze its current delegation logic and identify specific points where human trace data, choice data, or direct intervention are critical inputs, and document these dependencies.
  • Business Strategist On Monday morning, begin a strategic assessment of our core business processes that rely on algorithmic delegation; map out the human touchpoints and decision points that are currently integrated, or could be integrated, within a 'distributed delegation' framework to enhance system resilience and adaptability.
  • Researcher On Monday morning, draft a research proposal outlining a study to quantitatively measure the impact of 'distributed delegation' on system performance and user satisfaction in our specific domain, focusing on how varying levels of human input influence outcomes.
  • Policymaker On Monday morning, convene a working group to examine existing regulations and internal policies related to algorithmic decision-making and human oversight; identify any gaps that need addressing to better accommodate 'distributed delegation' scenarios, ensuring clarity on accountability and human agency.
Human-Computer Interaction
Illustration for: How do explanations with AI feedback affect people's learning and task performance based on their prior knowledge?

Key question

How do explanations with AI feedback affect people's learning and task performance based on their prior knowledge?

Tell me more, tell me more: the impact of explanations on learning from feedback provided by Artificial Intelligence
Förster, Broder, Fahr, et al. · European Journal of Information Systems · 2025
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive On Monday morning, initiate a cross-functional working group involving IT, product development, and user experience teams to prioritize the integration of AI-driven feedback systems that include clear, context-specific explanations, focusing initially on applications with less experienced user bases.
  • IT Manager On Monday morning, review the current AI feedback mechanisms within your team's systems and identify 1-2 pilot opportunities to implement or enhance explanations, specifically targeting areas where user error or confusion is frequently observed, and gather baseline performance data.
  • Business Strategist On Monday morning, task your team with identifying key business processes or customer-facing interactions where AI feedback is being used or considered, and assess the potential impact of explanation-enhanced AI on user adoption, efficiency, and overall customer satisfaction, particularly for novice users.
  • Researcher On Monday morning, design a pilot study protocol to specifically investigate how the *type* and *level of detail* of explanations provided by AI feedback influence perceived informativeness and learning outcomes for users with varying levels of domain expertise in a controlled environment.
  • Policymaker On Monday morning, begin drafting guidelines or a framework for the ethical deployment of AI systems that mandate, where feasible, the inclusion of explanations for AI-generated feedback, prioritizing sectors with high user impact and potential for knowledge gaps, such as education and public services.
AI & Automation
Illustration for: How do on-screen interruptions affect task performance on mobile devices compared to desktop computers?

Key question

How do on-screen interruptions affect task performance on mobile devices compared to desktop computers?

Mobile use in an age of interruption: Implications of capacity and structural interference for mobile users
Fink, Baranes, Ilany-Tzur · Information & Management · 2025
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive On Monday morning, initiate a review of the current mobile application development roadmap, prioritizing projects that involve complex workflows to identify opportunities for modularization into smaller, independent subtasks in the next development cycle.
  • IT Manager On Monday morning, schedule a brief meeting with your mobile development team to discuss the research findings on higher resumption costs for mobile users and explore practical strategies for simplifying user interfaces and reducing cognitive load on mobile applications they manage.
  • Business Strategist On Monday morning, analyze customer feedback and usage data for core mobile applications to identify specific complex workflows that are likely causing high resumption costs and explore opportunities to redesign these for improved user efficiency.
  • Researcher On Monday morning, begin drafting a follow-up experiment proposal that specifically quantifies the impact of pre-defined 'modularized subtask' interfaces on mobile resumption costs compared to current complex workflows, using the findings from this study as a baseline.
  • Policymaker On Monday morning, draft a memo to relevant committees and agencies proposing the inclusion of 'mobile interface design standards' that encourage modularization of complex tasks to improve digital accessibility and productivity for mobile users.
Digital Platforms
Illustration for: How is artificial intelligence reshaping academic work, and what opportunities and risks does it present?

Key question

How is artificial intelligence reshaping academic work, and what opportunities and risks does it present?

A Panel Report on the Implications of Artificial Intelligence for Academic Knowledge Work
Tursunbayeva, Renkema, Charlwood, et al. · Communications of the AIS · 2026
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive On Monday morning, initiate a cross-departmental working group meeting to inventory existing AI tool usage across teaching, research, and administrative functions, identifying commonalities and immediate risks based on the 'Key Findings' regarding AI hallucinations and ethical concerns.
  • IT Manager On Monday morning, schedule a technical assessment to evaluate the security protocols and data privacy implications of the most commonly used AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Copilot) currently being utilized by academic staff, referencing the 'Key Findings' on ethical risks.
  • Business Strategist On Monday morning, begin drafting a preliminary AI integration roadmap for academic workflows by identifying 2-3 specific routine teaching preparation or scholarly writing tasks (as per 'Key Findings') that could be piloted for AI automation within the next quarter.
  • Researcher On Monday morning, experiment with using an AI tool like ChatGPT or Copilot to draft an initial outline for a grant application section (referencing 'Key Findings' on streamlining grant workflows) or to refine a paragraph for clarity if English is not your primary language, noting both the efficiencies gained and any potential 'hallucinations' or quality degradation.
  • Policymaker On Monday morning, schedule a review of current institutional policies related to academic integrity and technology use, specifically flagging areas that need to be updated to address the 'Key Findings' on AI hallucinations, the degradation of peer-review quality, and the erosion of critical learning skills.
AI & Automation
Illustration for: How can universities better organize themselves to adapt and deliver effective online learning?

Key question

How can universities better organize themselves to adapt and deliver effective online learning?

Improving Self-Organization Capability in e-Learning using Soft System Methodology: A Case from Indonesia
Hapsari, Sensuse, Santoso, et al. · ICIS · 2024
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive On Monday morning, initiate a review of existing IT infrastructure and systems specifically identifying which ones are currently siloed and propose an initial phased approach (e.g., Phase 1: Integration of student information system with the learning management system) for breaking down these silos, with a preliminary timeline and resource estimate.
  • IT Manager On Monday morning, schedule a 30-minute check-in with a representative from the academic affairs department to discuss how existing IT systems can better support collaborative feedback mechanisms for course design, identifying one specific tool or feature that could be enhanced or implemented in the next sprint.
  • Business Strategist On Monday morning, draft a one-page outline for a multi-year e-learning strategy document, focusing on how to integrate the identified four core dimensions (strategic planning, personnel development, learning resource management, IT capability) into measurable objectives for the next academic year, and identify one key stakeholder group for initial feedback.
  • Researcher On Monday morning, begin compiling a list of existing open-dialogue platforms or communication channels within the university and identify two specific instances where they could be leveraged to facilitate cross-faculty discussions on e-learning best practices or challenges.
  • Policymaker On Monday morning, draft a memo to the academic senate proposing a pilot program for a collaborative feedback mechanism for course design, outlining the key benefits, the intended process, and requesting their endorsement to explore its feasibility further.
Data & Analytics
Illustration for: What drives digital gullibility, and how can systems be designed to help users critically evaluate online information?

Key question

What drives digital gullibility, and how can systems be designed to help users critically evaluate online information?

A Research Agenda to Understand Drivers of Digital Gullibility
Hall, Haas · ICIS · 2022
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive On Monday morning, initiate a cross-departmental working group with representatives from Security, User Experience, and Training to review the research agenda's propositions, specifically focusing on how to integrate 'epistemic vigilance' enhancement into the next IT security awareness training module, prioritizing the 'information context' gap.
  • IT Manager On Monday morning, schedule a 30-minute review session with your team to discuss the concept of 'context collapse' as presented in the research and brainstorm one specific system design tweak (e.g., adding a 'source credibility' indicator to internal dashboards) that could reduce information verification costs for your users, to be piloted within the week.
  • Business Strategist On Monday morning, draft a one-page executive summary for your leadership team that translates the research's core finding on 'digital gullibility as an antecedent to maladaptive online behaviors' into a business risk, proposing a brief for exploring how to quantify the cost of digital gullibility within your organization's operations.
  • Researcher On Monday morning, begin a literature review focused on the 'individual seeking behavior' gap outlined in the research, specifically searching for empirical studies that measure user-reported 'epistemic vigilance' in different online environments to refine your next research question.
  • Policymaker On Monday morning, draft an inquiry to relevant government agencies or industry bodies requesting current data on the prevalence and economic impact of 'digital scams' and 'phishing' within your jurisdiction, framing the request around understanding 'digital gullibility' as a root cause.
Digital Platforms
Illustration for: How do communities use social media to support mental health recovery during natural disasters?

Key question

How do communities use social media to support mental health recovery during natural disasters?

Digital Mental Health Resilience During Natural Disasters: A Scoping Review and Research Agenda
Islam, Marx, Liu, et al. · ACIS · 2025
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive On Monday morning, schedule a brief exploratory meeting with your innovation team to assess existing social media monitoring tools and identify potential enhancements for detecting and analyzing distress signals and misinformation during simulated disaster scenarios.
  • IT Manager On Monday morning, review the current moderation policies for any public-facing community forums or social media channels managed by your organization, and identify specific criteria related to 'vulnerability-sensitive content' that could be integrated into moderation guidelines.
  • Business Strategist On Monday morning, initiate a conversation with your communications and marketing teams to explore how your organization's social media presence could be adapted to proactively offer mental health resources or foster supportive community interactions, especially in light of potential regional disaster risks.
  • Researcher On Monday morning, begin drafting a concise summary of the 'vulnerability-sensitive channels' and 'cross-sector coordination' findings from this review, identifying specific examples or hypothetical scenarios where these could be applied to digital mental health resilience research.
  • Policymaker On Monday morning, draft a short memo to your relevant department heads, flagging the research finding on 'communities actively curate content and self-regulate online spaces' and suggesting a brief discussion on how public digital platforms could be better designed or supported to facilitate this self-regulation for mental health resilience during crises.
Cloud & Infrastructure
Illustration for: How do board members' differing perspectives shape cybersecurity discussions and organizational resilience?

Key question

How do board members' differing perspectives shape cybersecurity discussions and organizational resilience?

Framing Dialogues on Cyber-Resilience on Boards
Rehm, Schaffner, Goel · ICIS · 2021
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive On Monday morning, prepare a concise, one-page executive summary for the board that translates the organization's current top 3 cyber threats into quantifiable business risks (e.g., potential revenue loss, reputational damage) and proposes specific, non-technical mitigation strategies with clear business outcomes. Avoid technical jargon; use analogies if necessary.
  • IT Manager On Monday morning, gather a brief (5-minute) overview of the most recent significant cybersecurity incident (internal or external to the company) and identify one specific, tangible lesson learned that can be communicated to non-technical stakeholders without overwhelming them with technical details.
  • Business Strategist On Monday morning, identify one strategic business objective for the upcoming quarter that is indirectly impacted by cybersecurity and brainstorm how a proactive cyber-resilience approach could enable or protect that objective. Frame this in terms of competitive advantage or market opportunity.
  • Researcher On Monday morning, review the 'Key Findings' section of your research and identify one specific, actionable question from each identified dysfunctional dialogue pattern (topic avoidance, political exploitation) that you can pose to a board member to gently guide them towards a more resilient discussion.
  • Policymaker On Monday morning, draft a short, one-paragraph statement for your next regulatory update that suggests a reporting framework for board-level cybersecurity oversight, focusing on the *outcomes* of cyber-resilience rather than prescriptive technical requirements.
Cybersecurity & Privacy
Illustration for: How do public discussions on social media shift across different stages of a prolonged health crisis?

Key question

How do public discussions on social media shift across different stages of a prolonged health crisis?

A Multi-Method Analysis of the Evolution of Social Media Discourse in Prolonged Crises: through the Lens of Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication (CERC)
Jiang, Gupta, Li · AIS SIGDSA Symposium · 2025
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive On Monday morning, direct your data science team to explore leveraging sentiment analysis and topic modeling tools to categorize incoming social media data related to ongoing public health issues, enabling proactive identification of shifting public concerns.
  • IT Manager On Monday morning, schedule a brief meeting with your social media monitoring team to review the existing dashboards and identify if they can be reconfigured to visually highlight shifts in discussion topics and the interconnectedness of conversations, aligning with the research's emphasis on phase-tailored messaging.
  • Business Strategist On Monday morning, initiate a brainstorming session with your communications and marketing teams to consider how your organization's messaging can adapt to different phases of a prolonged public health crisis, drawing parallels from the COVID-19 discourse shifts identified in the research.
  • Researcher On Monday morning, begin outlining a research proposal that analyzes social media discourse in another prolonged crisis (e.g., climate change, economic instability) using a similar multi-method approach to the one described, focusing on mapping public concerns onto relevant communication frameworks.
  • Policymaker On Monday morning, task your policy analysis unit with reviewing existing crisis communication guidelines and recommend updates to incorporate phase-specific strategies informed by the research on evolving social media discourse, particularly concerning anxiety mitigation and misinformation countering.
Data & Analytics
Illustration for: How can organizations define and select performance indicators for collaborative business networks?

Key question

How can organizations define and select performance indicators for collaborative business networks?

Managing Performance in Collaborative Networks: A Method for Defining Key Performance Indicators for Collaborative Business Models
van de Ven, Machado, Aysolmaz, et al. · Business & Information Systems Engineering · 2026
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive On Monday morning, initiate a pilot project to apply the three-step KPI definition method to one specific collaborative network your organization participates in, focusing on identifying and documenting initial network-level KPIs using your existing data infrastructure.
  • IT Manager On Monday morning, schedule a working session with a key business stakeholder from a collaborative project to begin the 'KPI specification' step of the research method, focusing on articulating the desired outcomes for that specific collaboration.
  • Business Strategist On Monday morning, review the research's findings on differentiating KPI scopes and draft a preliminary list of potential network, subnet, and actor-level KPIs for a newly forming collaborative initiative.
  • Researcher On Monday morning, begin designing a case study to apply and further refine the proposed KPI definition method within a new collaborative business scenario, focusing on the 'multi-criteria KPI selection' and 'attribute operationalization' steps.
  • Policymaker On Monday morning, identify a specific public-private collaborative initiative and begin exploring how the research's approach to KPI definition could be adapted to measure its network-wide alignment and individual actor contributions effectively.
Operations & Supply Chain
Illustration for: How can organizations identify the operational changes needed after redesigning their business model?

Key question

How can organizations identify the operational changes needed after redesigning their business model?

Navigating Business Model Redesign: The Compass Method for Identifying Changes to the Operating Model
Machado, van de Ven, Aysolmaz, et al. · Business & Information Systems Engineering · 2024
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive On Monday morning, review the executive summary of the Compass Method paper and identify which of the 'design objectives' and 'solution knowledge' areas align with current or planned IT infrastructure investments to support business model redesigns.
  • IT Manager On Monday morning, pull up the 'operating model design cards' described in the paper and, referencing a recent business model change initiative, begin mapping existing IT processes and systems to these cards to identify potential operational gaps or inefficiencies.
  • Business Strategist On Monday morning, dedicate two hours to familiarize yourself with the three steps of the Compass Method and prepare to facilitate a pilot session next week applying the method to a specific, recently redesigned business model component.
  • Researcher On Monday morning, begin analyzing the empirical case study data presented in the paper, focusing on the specific metrics or indicators used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the Compass Method in enhancing traceability and standardizing operational change planning.
  • Policymaker On Monday morning, read the 'problem' section of the research and consider how the described gap between business model redesign and operational implementation might be addressed by future organizational policy or standard operating procedures, potentially incorporating elements of structured change planning.
IS & Management
Illustration for: How do laws banning businesses from suppressing negative reviews affect online customer ratings?

Key question

How do laws banning businesses from suppressing negative reviews affect online customer ratings?

Can Regulation Restore Authenticity? Evidence from Policies Against Online Review Suppression
Sanatizadeh, Burtch, Hong, et al. · Information Systems Research · 2025
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive On Monday morning, initiate a review of our internal policies and legal contracts to ensure no clauses inadvertently threaten or discourage customers from providing honest feedback on public review platforms.
  • IT Manager On Monday morning, task your team with monitoring online review platforms for any patterns of review suppression tactics being used by our competitors, specifically looking for increases in negative reviews that are quickly removed or challenged.
  • Business Strategist On Monday morning, analyze recent customer feedback data, particularly any negative reviews received in the last quarter, and assess if there are opportunities to engage with these customers to improve our offerings and address concerns openly.
  • Researcher On Monday morning, identify and gather publicly available datasets on consumer review sentiment and volume for companies in sectors known for aggressive review suppression prior to recent regulatory changes, to replicate or extend the findings on the CRFA.
  • Policymaker On Monday morning, schedule a meeting with your legislative staff to discuss potential avenues for expanding regulatory protections to cover other forms of consumer feedback, such as social media comments or product testimonials, building upon the success of the CRFA.
Cloud & Infrastructure
Illustration for: How can organizations successfully implement digital identity wallets and overcome common adoption challenges?

Key question

How can organizations successfully implement digital identity wallets and overcome common adoption challenges?

Digital Identity Wallets: A Guide to the EU’s New Identity Model
Kudra, Rieger, Sedlmeir, et al. · Information Systems Journal · 2026
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive Schedule a 30-minute internal briefing for your core IT leadership team to present the attached research summary and assign a point person to investigate the 'technical maturity' obstacles identified in the key findings within the context of our existing identity and access management infrastructure.
  • IT Manager On Monday morning, compile a list of all current third-party single sign-on providers used by the organization and identify which of these might be candidates for integration or replacement with a digital identity wallet solution in the future, flagging any immediate integration challenges or risks.
  • Business Strategist Dedicate one hour on Monday morning to reviewing the 'ecosystem value co-creation' challenges mentioned in the research and brainstorm at least three potential business use cases within our organization where a digital identity wallet could unlock new revenue streams or significantly improve customer experience.
  • Researcher Begin analyzing the 12 practical experience case studies mentioned in the research by focusing on the 'organizational integration' obstacles. Identify and document recurring themes and successful mitigation strategies from at least three diverse industry examples to inform our own adoption framework.
  • Policymaker Initiate a dialogue with legal and compliance teams on Monday morning to assess the implications of the 2026 EU mandate for digital wallet support, specifically identifying any current regulatory gaps or areas where policy clarification will be needed to facilitate the adoption of wallet-based identity models.
Cybersecurity & Privacy
Illustration for: How does integrating generative AI into coursework affect student learning and practical skills?

Key question

How does integrating generative AI into coursework affect student learning and practical skills?

Generative Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education: Mediating Learning for Literacy Development
Hönigsberg, Watkowski, Drechsler · Communications of the AIS · 2025
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive On Monday morning, direct your team to initiate a pilot program with ChatGPT-4 for a select group of faculty in the business school to explore its integration into curriculum design and assess infrastructure readiness for wider deployment.
  • IT Manager On Monday morning, schedule a meeting with the faculty involved in the pilot program to gather initial feedback on their experience using GAI tools and document any technical challenges encountered during their setup or usage.
  • Business Strategist On Monday morning, begin researching and analyzing how competitor business schools are currently leveraging generative AI in their curricula and draft a preliminary report on potential competitive advantages or disadvantages for our institution.
  • Researcher On Monday morning, begin drafting a research proposal to investigate the specific prompt engineering strategies employed by students in the pilot program and how these strategies correlate with improved literacy development outcomes.
  • Policymaker On Monday morning, initiate a review of existing academic integrity policies to identify areas that need to be updated or expanded to address the ethical use of generative AI by students and faculty.
AI & Automation
Illustration for: Why do similar small businesses adopting the same digital platform experience vastly different business model outcomes?

Key question

Why do similar small businesses adopting the same digital platform experience vastly different business model outcomes?

The impact of digital platform introduction on business models in SMEs—The interplay of efficiency and innovation orientation
Hönigsberg, Li, Korneeva, et al. · Journal of Strategic Information Systems · 2026
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive On Monday morning, review the platform's user adoption metrics from the past month, specifically looking at the depth of operational embedding (e.g., number of workflows integrated, data points shared) across different teams, and identify any teams demonstrating shallow engagement.
  • IT Manager On Monday morning, schedule a brief check-in with the team responsible for platform integration, asking them to identify one specific, recurring operational task that could be further streamlined through deeper platform usage, and outline the steps to achieve this.
  • Business Strategist On Monday morning, analyze the platform's current capabilities and identify one potential co-branding opportunity with another SME on the platform that leverages existing operational efficiencies but could lead to a novel offering.
  • Researcher On Monday morning, begin compiling a list of the specific operational metrics used by the four case study firms to measure 'efficiency-focused platform orientation' and note down any qualitative data collected on 'deep operational embedding'.
  • Policymaker On Monday morning, initiate a review of existing SME digital platform adoption support programs, focusing on how they encourage 'deep operational embedding' beyond initial efficiency gains and measure long-term transformative outcomes.
Digital Transformation
Illustration for: How does generative AI transform the way digital platforms create value, operate, and manage their users?

Key question

How does generative AI transform the way digital platforms create value, operate, and manage their users?

Generative AI and its Transformative Value for Digital Platforms
Wessel, Adam, Benlian, et al. · Journal of Management Information Systems · 2025
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive On Monday morning, schedule a 30-minute exploratory meeting with your core architecture and data science teams to identify 1-2 pilot use cases for intelligent automation within our existing platform, focusing on areas where GenAI can autonomously process and interpret existing boundary resources like APIs or SDKs to generate context-aware outputs.
  • IT Manager On Monday morning, initiate a review of the platform's current developer documentation and onboarding process. Identify specific sections or tasks that could be simplified or made more accessible to non-experts by integrating GenAI-powered tools for code generation, API explanation, or prompt engineering guidance.
  • Business Strategist On Monday morning, begin drafting a one-page concept document outlining how GenAI could be leveraged for hyper-personalization on our platform. Focus on identifying 2-3 specific user segments and detailing how GenAI could generate unique, context-aware content or recommendations for each, differentiating from current rule-based personalization.
  • Researcher On Monday morning, select one of the four key GenAI mechanisms (intelligent automation, democratization, hyper-personalization, or collaborative innovation) and spend two hours outlining a specific research question and potential methodology to investigate its impact on a particular aspect of platform stakeholder dynamics, such as complementor participation or user engagement.
  • Policymaker On Monday morning, convene a brief working session with legal and compliance advisors to discuss potential novel governance mechanisms needed to ensure the quality and authenticity of GenAI-generated outputs on digital platforms, specifically addressing the challenges highlighted by amplified network effects from lowered entry barriers.
AI & Automation
Illustration for: How can immersive virtual spaces help remote teams collaborate creatively and generate innovative ideas?

Key question

How can immersive virtual spaces help remote teams collaborate creatively and generate innovative ideas?

A Metaverse-Based Proof of Concept for Innovation in Distributed Teams
Francisco, Geeling, Oosterwyk, et al. · MIS Quarterly Executive · 2025
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive On Monday morning, initiate a pilot program to explore and test a specific metaverse platform (e.g., Spatial, ENGAGE) by scheduling a 30-minute exploratory session with your direct reports to assess its potential for distributed team collaboration and innovation, focusing on avatar-based interaction and spatial navigation.
  • IT Manager On Monday morning, research and identify two to three user-friendly metaverse platforms and one digital whiteboard tool that integrate well, and then schedule a brief (15-minute) demo for your team to evaluate their potential for facilitating dynamic collaboration and creative ideation in distributed teams.
  • Business Strategist On Monday morning, identify one specific cross-functional innovation challenge your distributed teams are currently facing and outline how an immersive metaverse environment could potentially foster more spontaneous interaction and diverse solution ideation for that specific challenge.
  • Researcher On Monday morning, begin by reviewing the 'Key Findings' of this study and formulate three specific hypotheses about how the integration of metaverse environments and digital whiteboards can measurably improve psychological safety and idea generation in your next distributed team project.
  • Policymaker On Monday morning, draft a preliminary proposal for a 'Virtual Innovation Hub' policy, outlining the potential benefits of adopting immersive metaverse technologies for distributed teams, referencing the research findings on enhanced engagement and reduced social pressure.
Digital Platforms
Illustration for: How does subscribing to a video streaming service affect people's spending at movie theaters?

Key question

How does subscribing to a video streaming service affect people's spending at movie theaters?

Return of the Movie Night? Analyzing the Impact of Netflix Subscriptions on Offline Movie Spending
Fang, Kwon, Gopal, et al. · Information Systems Research · 2025
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive On Monday morning, initiate a review of our current digital content delivery infrastructure to identify potential synergies and opportunities to bundle or cross-promote offline entertainment experiences with our streaming service offerings, especially targeting younger and lower-income demographics.
  • IT Manager On Monday morning, analyze user engagement data for our streaming platform, specifically looking for patterns of usage among younger and lower-income users, and investigate if there are any integrations or notification systems we can implement to suggest local cinema showtimes or associated dining deals as complementary activities.
  • Business Strategist On Monday morning, schedule a meeting with the marketing and partnerships teams to explore co-marketing opportunities with local cinemas and restaurants, focusing on developing bundled packages or loyalty programs that incentivize a 'Netflix and then Out' experience, particularly targeting younger demographics and those with perceived higher hedonic needs.
  • Researcher On Monday morning, begin designing a follow-up study that specifically quantifies the causal impact of premium streaming plan subscriptions on offline movie spending and complementary hedonic spending, utilizing a controlled experiment or a refined difference-in-differences approach to test expectation disconfirmation theory more rigorously.
  • Policymaker On Monday morning, begin drafting a policy brief that examines the potential for digital entertainment subscriptions to indirectly stimulate local economies through increased spending on complementary offline social and hedonic activities, and explore incentives for businesses to create integrated entertainment packages.
Illustration for: How can AI governance be adapted to fit local cultural and ethical values around the world?

Key question

How can AI governance be adapted to fit local cultural and ethical values around the world?

Toward Cultural–Ethical Fit in AI Governance: A Global Typology of Governance Profiles
Symeonidis, Schneider, Nikiforova · ECIS · 2026
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive On Monday morning, schedule a 30-minute deep dive with your legal and ethics teams to identify which of the eight AI governance profiles identified in the research most closely aligns with your organization's current AI development and deployment practices, and flag any immediate misalignments.
  • IT Manager On Monday morning, initiate a review of your team's current AI project documentation and development methodologies, specifically looking for instances where decisions about fairness, transparency, or accountability might have been implicitly influenced by a single cultural perspective (e.g., U.S.-centric) and note them for further discussion.
  • Business Strategist On Monday morning, begin analyzing your organization's key international markets and identify the primary cultural value orientations that characterize them, then cross-reference this with the meta-tensions (social justice vs. economic competitiveness, autonomy vs. security) to anticipate potential governance friction for upcoming AI initiatives.
  • Researcher On Monday morning, begin drafting a short literature review outline focusing on how cultural value orientations (e.g., individualism vs. collectivism) have historically shaped the adoption and regulation of other transformative technologies (e.g., the internet, biotechnology) to draw parallels with AI governance.
  • Policymaker On Monday morning, review the 'diagnostic decision framework' mentioned in the research, and identify one specific AI guideline (e.g., data privacy regulations) that your jurisdiction currently applies universally, then brainstorm how to adapt its interpretation to better fit the dominant cultural value orientations of your primary constituent groups.
Cybersecurity & Privacy
Illustration for: What roles can generative AI play in data quality management, and how should leaders govern them?

Key question

What roles can generative AI play in data quality management, and how should leaders govern them?

A Typology For Responsible Delegation Of Data Quality Management To Generative AI
Roht, Nikiforova, Lefebvre · ECIS · 2026
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive On Monday morning, initiate a review of your organization's current DQM tool landscape to identify which, if any, are actively experimenting with or have integrated GenAI capabilities, and schedule a follow-up meeting with the IT Manager to discuss initial findings and potential pilot opportunities based on the 'Translator' role.
  • IT Manager On Monday morning, dedicate an hour to review the existing data quality rulebooks and documentation within your team's purview, noting down specific areas where natural language descriptions of data quality issues or desired rules are prevalent, to prepare for a discussion with the CIO/IT Executive about the potential application of the 'Translator' GenAI role.
  • Business Strategist On Monday morning, identify one critical business process that is currently hampered by data quality issues and then, using the 'Explainer' GenAI role as a conceptual framework, draft three potential narrative-style questions you would ask an AI about the root causes and impact of these data quality problems to present to stakeholders.
  • Researcher On Monday morning, begin by outlining a research proposal to investigate the effectiveness and potential biases of GenAI 'Resolver' roles in correcting common data anomalies within a specific industry domain, drawing upon the governance guidelines related to mandatory human validation for high-impact actions.
  • Policymaker On Monday morning, begin drafting a preliminary policy document that outlines the principle of 'retained human accountability' for any data quality decisions made or influenced by GenAI within the organization, focusing on the need for clear audit trails and oversight for 'Resolver' and 'Integrator' roles.
Data & Analytics
Illustration for: How does adopting smart speakers change how consumers search for, buy, and consume digital content?

Key question

How does adopting smart speakers change how consumers search for, buy, and consume digital content?

The Voice of Commerce: How Smart Speakers Reshape Digital Content Consumption and Preferences
Son, Oh, Im · MIS Quarterly · 2023
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive On Monday morning, task your team with investigating integration points between existing VOD platforms and major smart speaker voice assistant APIs (e.g., Alexa, Google Assistant) to enable seamless content discovery and playback via voice commands.
  • IT Manager On Monday morning, analyze the current VOD platform's data infrastructure to identify how to track and log voice-initiated search queries and content playback events, distinguishing them from traditional remote control interactions.
  • Business Strategist On Monday morning, initiate a brainstorm session to explore new content promotion strategies that leverage voice-activated search, considering how to make titles more discoverable through natural language queries and conversational recommendations.
  • Researcher On Monday morning, begin outlining a follow-up study to quantify the correlation between specific conversational voice interactions (beyond simple search) and increased VOD content consumption, perhaps through A/B testing of voice-guided discovery features.
  • Policymaker On Monday morning, convene a working group to assess the potential implications of increased voice-activated content consumption on digital accessibility standards and to explore how to ensure equitable access to content across all user interfaces.
Operations & Supply Chain
Illustration for: How can organizations effectively design and implement artificial intelligence to support business decision-making?

Key question

How can organizations effectively design and implement artificial intelligence to support business decision-making?

Design principles for artificial intelligence-augmented decision making: An action design research study
Pathirannehelage, Shrestha, von Krogh · European Journal of Information Systems · 2024
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive On Monday morning, schedule a 30-minute kickoff meeting with your heads of data science, infrastructure, and business intelligence to review the company's current AIADM initiatives and identify one high-priority business model requirement for AIADM to address within the next quarter.
  • IT Manager On Monday morning, initiate a preliminary audit of existing data pipelines and AI model repositories, specifically noting any inconsistencies or gaps in documentation that hinder synergy between input data, AI models, and visual outputs.
  • Business Strategist On Monday morning, draft a concise one-page document outlining at least two specific AIADM use cases that directly align with the company's current strategic objectives, identifying the key data inputs and desired decision outcomes for each.
  • Researcher On Monday morning, review the internal documentation for the AIADM system currently in use, and identify one specific instance where human domain expertise could have significantly improved the AI's output or decision recommendation.
  • Policymaker On Monday morning, begin drafting a preliminary checklist of essential components for an ethical AI governance framework, focusing on elements relevant to data privacy, bias detection, and clear lines of decision accountability for AI-augmented decisions.
AI & Automation
Illustration for: How can organizations turn responsible artificial intelligence principles into practical governance practices?

Key question

How can organizations turn responsible artificial intelligence principles into practical governance practices?

Responsible artificial intelligence governance: A review and research framework
Papagiannidis, Mikalef, Conboy · Journal of Strategic Information Systems · 2025
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive On Monday morning, initiate a review of your organization's current AI project lifecycle documentation to identify where the seven core responsible AI principles (accountability, diversity & fairness, human agency & oversight, privacy & data governance, technical robustness & safety, transparency, and social & environmental well-being) are explicitly addressed and where gaps exist, preparing to assign ownership for these areas.
  • IT Manager On Monday morning, schedule a 30-minute meeting with your team responsible for AI development or deployment to collaboratively identify one specific AI project that could benefit from enhanced procedural practices (e.g., implementing a new risk assessment checklist based on transparency principles) and assign a team member to draft this enhancement by Friday.
  • Business Strategist On Monday morning, dedicate an hour to researching how responsible AI governance (structural, procedural, and relational practices) could directly contribute to your organization's stated business objectives and competitive advantage, identifying at least one concrete opportunity to explore further.
  • Researcher On Monday morning, select one of the seven core responsible AI principles that you find most underdeveloped in current practice and spend two hours identifying three specific research questions from the provided framework that directly address operationalizing this principle, preparing to draft a short proposal for investigation.
  • Policymaker On Monday morning, dedicate an hour to identifying which of the seven core responsible AI principles your current regulatory framework or internal policies address most weakly, and then draft a one-page summary of potential areas for future policy development or amendment, focusing on bridging the gap between abstract principles and actionable practices.
AI & Automation
Illustration for: How does collaborative course redesign affect student performance, teaching consistency, and instructor confidence?

Key question

How does collaborative course redesign affect student performance, teaching consistency, and instructor confidence?

Efficacy Beliefs and Outcomes: Socio-Cognitive Perspectives on a Faculty-Led coP
Muraski, Heath, Eierman, et al. · AIS SIGED Conference · 2023
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive On Monday morning, schedule a 30-minute meeting with your IT academic technology support lead to explore a pilot program implementing a Communities of Practice model for a high-enrollment introductory course, using the provided research as a framework for discussion on potential student outcome improvements and faculty development.
  • IT Manager On Monday morning, gather the instructors for the introductory information systems course for a 45-minute session. Share the key findings of this research, specifically highlighting the gains in student performance and instructor self-efficacy. Then, collaboratively brainstorm one small, concrete change to the course syllabus or assessment that can be implemented next semester as a collective first step towards greater consistency.
  • Business Strategist On Monday morning, analyze the current onboarding and ongoing professional development process for new faculty teaching foundational courses. Identify any gaps in collaborative support and informal learning opportunities, and consider how principles from this research, such as vicarious learning and peer persuasion, could be integrated into existing programs to improve faculty confidence and course consistency.
  • Researcher On Monday morning, begin drafting a proposal for a follow-up study. Focus on investigating the specific mechanisms of vicarious learning and peer verbal persuasion within the identified Community of Practice, perhaps through targeted surveys or observation protocols, to quantify their impact on instructor self-efficacy and to better understand how to scale these findings.
  • Policymaker On Monday morning, initiate a discussion with the Provost's office and the Faculty Senate leadership to present the findings of this research. Propose the development of a university-wide framework or grant program that incentivizes and supports the formation of faculty Communities of Practice for foundational courses, emphasizing the potential for improved student learning outcomes and faculty development.
Cybersecurity & Privacy
Illustration for: How can practitioner researchers overcome the divide between academia and industry to create real-world impact?

Key question

How can practitioner researchers overcome the divide between academia and industry to create real-world impact?

Boundary Spanning and Practical Impact in IS Research: A Bourdieusian Analysis
McCarthy, Scholta, Hausvik, et al. · Information Systems Journal · 2025
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive On Monday morning, schedule a 30-minute meeting with your direct reports to initiate a 'practice impact review' focused on one ongoing IS project. Ask each person to identify one specific academic insight or research finding from a recent external study or internal research initiative that could be directly applied to improve that project's current proof-of-concept or proof-of-value stage, and assign them to explore this application by end of week.
  • IT Manager On Monday morning, identify one specific, recent academic paper or conference proceeding relevant to a current team challenge. Forward this paper to your team with a concise note asking for a brief, 1-2 sentence summary of its most practical takeaway and how it *might* apply to your current proof-of-value stage objective by Tuesday afternoon.
  • Business Strategist On Monday morning, review the key performance indicators (KPIs) of one strategic business initiative currently underway. Identify which KPIs are not meeting expectations and, using the 'proof-of-value' framework, draft a one-page hypothesis on how a novel IS application or process, potentially informed by academic research, could demonstrably improve these specific KPIs within the next quarter.
  • Researcher On Monday morning, select one recent academic publication where you are the lead author and identify its 'proof-of-use' stage potential. Draft a single-slide executive summary that articulates the core problem addressed, the practical solution proposed, and one tangible benefit for a specific industry practitioner role (e.g., IT manager, business analyst), and share it with three relevant practitioner contacts for feedback by Wednesday.
  • Policymaker On Monday morning, review the current grant application criteria for technology innovation funding. Identify if and how 'demonstrable practical impact' is explicitly assessed, and draft a brief proposal to incorporate a specific requirement for applicants to detail their strategy for achieving 'proof-of-value' or 'proof-of-use' within a defined timeframe, alongside theoretical contributions.
Operations & Supply Chain
Illustration for: How do virtual worlds help people with lifelong disabilities move from social isolation to social inclusion?

Key question

How do virtual worlds help people with lifelong disabilities move from social isolation to social inclusion?

Affordance-Based Pathway Model of Social Inclusion: A Case Study of Virtual Worlds and People With Lifelong Disability
Stendal, Sein, Thapa · Journal of the AIS · 2026
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive On Monday morning, task your accessibility team to conduct an initial assessment of our current platform's 'communicability' features (e.g., real-time chat, group messaging, avatar-based interaction quality) against the research's identified functional affordances to understand potential barriers and opportunities for individuals with disabilities.
  • IT Manager On Monday morning, schedule a 30-minute working session with your frontline support staff to review existing user feedback logs for mentions of difficulty with navigation, communication, or customization within our virtual environment, specifically looking for patterns that might align with limitations in perceived 'mobility' or 'personalizability' affordances.
  • Business Strategist On Monday morning, initiate a competitive analysis focusing on how emerging virtual platforms or digital communities are leveraging 'engageability' and 'self-actualizability' affordances to foster user connection and content creation, particularly noting any strategies that might appeal to or benefit users with disabilities.
  • Researcher On Monday morning, begin drafting a protocol for a pilot study within our organization's virtual world that focuses on measuring the impact of enhanced 'communicability' features on user-reported feelings of 'engageability' and 'self-actualizability' among a diverse user group, potentially including participants with disabilities.
  • Policymaker On Monday morning, convene a brief meeting with your advisory committee to discuss how current digital inclusion policies might be strengthened by explicitly incorporating the research's identified 'functional affordances' (communicability, mobility, personalizability) and 'social affordances' (engageability, self-actualizability) as measurable criteria for assessing technological accessibility and support for social participation.
Cloud & Infrastructure
Illustration for: How can organizations use digital technology to improve environmental performance and achieve economic benefits?

Key question

How can organizations use digital technology to improve environmental performance and achieve economic benefits?

Exploring Digital Sustainability: A Multidimensional Framework for IS Scholarship
Mertens, Haskamp, vom Brocke · ICIS · 2025
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive On Monday morning, initiate a review of your organization's current digital infrastructure against the 'antecedents' dimension of the digital sustainability framework. Prioritize identifying at least one area where technology can be leveraged for 'automatization' to reduce physical resource consumption (e.g., paperless workflows, virtual meetings replacing travel).
  • IT Manager On Monday morning, identify one specific digital tool or process currently in use (e.g., cloud storage, software updates) and evaluate its potential 'digital energy consumption.' Research and propose to your team one tangible step to optimize its energy efficiency, such as scheduling software updates during off-peak hours or reviewing cloud storage policies for unused data.
  • Business Strategist On Monday morning, examine your current product or service offerings and identify an opportunity to apply one of the 'sustainability-enabling logics' presented in the research. For example, explore how 'servitization' (offering a service instead of a product) could reduce material waste and extend product lifespan.
  • Researcher On Monday morning, focus on the 'product-level value creation mechanisms' research agenda. Select one of the 14 identified logics (e.g., 'prediction') and brainstorm how it could be applied to develop a testable hypothesis related to reducing a specific environmental impact within an organizational context. Outline the initial steps for designing a pilot study.
  • Policymaker On Monday morning, review existing digital infrastructure policies and identify areas where incentives can be introduced or strengthened to encourage 'enhanced green employee/customer behavior' through digital means. For example, consider proposing a policy that rewards teams who demonstrably reduce their digital carbon footprint through technology adoption.
Sustainability & Green IS
Illustration for: How can organizations successfully manage and sustain digital transformations over the long term?

Key question

How can organizations successfully manage and sustain digital transformations over the long term?

Transform or be transformed: the importance of research on managing and sustaining digital transformations
Carroll, Hassan, Junglas, et al. · European Journal of Information Systems · 2023
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive On Monday morning, schedule a 30-minute meeting with your direct reports to discuss the 'execution engine' concept and brainstorm one specific process within your IT department that needs fundamental adaptation for long-term digital transformation success. Assign one person to draft a brief proposal by end-of-week.
  • IT Manager On Monday morning, identify one digital initiative currently underway that is showing signs of slowing adoption or unexpected friction. Gather the project team for a 1-hour 'root cause analysis' session, focusing specifically on potential cultural or structural obstacles, not just technical issues, and document the top 2-3 hypothesized causes.
  • Business Strategist On Monday morning, review your organization's current digital transformation roadmap and flag any objectives that are solely focused on short-term adoption metrics. Draft a list of 3-5 questions to explore how these objectives will be sustained and normalized over the next 1-3 years, and schedule a preliminary discussion with your team by Wednesday.
  • Researcher On Monday morning, analyze your current research project's data collection plan. Identify if it allows for longitudinal observation of digital transformation normalization (beyond initial adoption) and, if not, sketch out one modification to incorporate this perspective in future data gathering or analysis.
  • Policymaker On Monday morning, review existing public funding guidelines or incentives for digital transformation. Identify one specific criterion or reporting requirement that might unintentionally discourage longitudinal sustainability efforts and draft a brief memo suggesting a minor amendment to encourage long-term impact.
Digital Transformation
Illustration for: Why do traditional approaches to defining requirements cause large-scale IT projects to fail?

Key question

Why do traditional approaches to defining requirements cause large-scale IT projects to fail?

Using a Process Philosophy Perspective in Information Systems Research: Principles of Creative Evolution
Kreps, Rowe · Journal of the AIS · 2024
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive On Monday morning, schedule a 30-minute "process thinking" brainstorming session with your heads of engineering and product development to discuss a recent project that faced significant challenges, focusing on how evolving user needs and unforeseen contextual shifts, rather than static requirements, might have been the root cause.
  • IT Manager On Monday morning, initiate a 15-minute stand-up with your development team to specifically ask them to articulate one instance from the past week where a change in the team's understanding or a user's evolving need led to a necessary adaptation of their work, and how they managed that 'flow'.
  • Business Strategist On Monday morning, review the 'success metrics' for your current key strategic initiatives and identify one metric that relies heavily on a static, predefined outcome. Then, draft a brief proposal to reframe that metric to capture ongoing adaptability and emergent value rather than just initial adherence to a plan.
  • Researcher On Monday morning, dedicate an hour to re-reading your current research proposal, specifically highlighting any language that treats concepts as fixed entities. Then, rewrite one paragraph to emphasize the dynamic, experiential, and relational aspects of your subject matter, incorporating the principles of creative evolution.
  • Policymaker On Monday morning, identify one current policy or regulation within your domain that is narrowly defined by static criteria or historical precedents. Then, draft a one-page memo outlining how an update to this policy could incorporate principles of ongoing adaptation and feedback loops to account for emergent technological and societal shifts.
Sustainability & Green IS
Illustration for: How can artificial intelligence simplify complex privacy policies while maintaining their essential legal accuracy?

Key question

How can artificial intelligence simplify complex privacy policies while maintaining their essential legal accuracy?

Automated Privacy Policy Simplification through a GPT-Powered Chrome Extension
Al Jabor, Astaneh, Mohanty, et al. · ICIS · 2025
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive On Monday morning, initiate a pilot program to evaluate the integration of a GPT-powered privacy policy simplification Chrome extension across a select department, focusing on user adoption and feedback regarding usability and perceived value.
  • IT Manager On Monday morning, prepare a technical feasibility assessment for deploying the developed Chrome extension across the organization's standard user workstations, outlining any necessary infrastructure changes or security considerations.
  • Business Strategist On Monday morning, analyze how the real-time privacy policy simplification and Q&A features of the Chrome extension can be leveraged to enhance user trust and potentially create a competitive differentiator for our online services.
  • Researcher On Monday morning, begin designing an experiment to test the effectiveness of the audience-adjusted rewriting prompt ('rewrite so a 10th-grade student can understand while maintaining legal accuracy') with a new set of privacy policies from a different industry sector.
  • Policymaker On Monday morning, review the research findings on improved readability and content preservation to draft talking points for discussions on enhancing consumer understanding of digital service terms and conditions.
Cybersecurity & Privacy
Illustration for: How do stakeholders' past negative experiences affect their trust and adoption of new technology?

Key question

How do stakeholders' past negative experiences affect their trust and adoption of new technology?

Yoga Sutra-Based Memory Analysis of Information Systems Implementation
Vaidya · Communications of the AIS · 2026
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive On Monday morning, schedule a 30-minute discovery call with your Head of User Experience and your Chief Ethics Officer to brainstorm how to proactively identify and mitigate potential 'Samskara' (subliminal impressions) in upcoming system implementations by focusing on past negative stakeholder experiences.
  • IT Manager On Monday morning, review the last three system user feedback reports for any recurring themes related to distrust or negative past experiences, and flag the top two recurring issues to investigate further for potential 'Alambana' (external triggers) in your current system.
  • Business Strategist On Monday morning, draft a brief (one-page) internal memo to your team outlining the concept of 'Samskara' and its potential impact on technology adoption, and request them to identify one instance in recent projects where past negative impressions might have influenced user behavior.
  • Researcher On Monday morning, begin drafting the introduction to your next research paper by clearly articulating the gap in current information systems research regarding the lack of focus on individual cognitive variations and Eastern philosophical perspectives on memory, using the Yoga Sutra framework as your proposed solution.
  • Policymaker On Monday morning, initiate a discussion with your advisory board regarding the importance of embedding ethical and behavioral values into the design and implementation guidelines for all new government information systems, referencing the finding that failures often stem from a lack of adherence to these values, not culture.
Data & Analytics
Illustration for: How do technology projects affect local communities, and what determines whether they succeed or fail?

Key question

How do technology projects affect local communities, and what determines whether they succeed or fail?

Ethics-based ontology in ICT4D
Thapa · Information Technology for Development · 2025
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive On Monday morning, schedule a 30-minute meeting with your ICT4D project leads to introduce the concept of an 'ethics-based ontology' and ask them to identify one project where technology is deeply integrated into user workflows and cultural practices. Assign them to bring initial thoughts on how the project's impact on lived experience and moral agency could be assessed in the next project review.
  • IT Manager On Monday morning, review the support tickets and user feedback logs from the last quarter for your current ICT4D deployment. Specifically, look for recurring issues that are not purely technical but seem to relate to user frustration, resistance to adoption, or a perception of technology not fitting their daily routines. Flag these for further investigation with your team.
  • Business Strategist On Monday morning, identify your organization's most critical ICT4D initiative. Draft a brief memo outlining how you plan to evaluate its success not just on efficiency metrics but also on its impact on the dignity, agency, and cultural integrity of the end-users. Prepare to discuss this revised evaluation framework with your team by the end of the week.
  • Researcher On Monday morning, revisit the 'implementation challenges' section of the research paper and select ONE challenge (e.g., translating abstract concepts into practical design metrics). Begin drafting a short (1-page) proposal for how you might operationalize this concept for a future ICT4D project you are involved in, focusing on a tangible measurement.
  • Policymaker On Monday morning, review existing national or organizational guidelines for technology procurement and deployment in development contexts. Identify sections that address user impact, cultural sensitivity, or long-term sustainability. Draft a short list of questions to investigate how these existing guidelines could be strengthened to incorporate considerations of lived experience and moral responsibility for technology's impact.
Cybersecurity & Privacy
Illustration for: What drives users to stay engaged with location-based games and build real-world communities?

Key question

What drives users to stay engaged with location-based games and build real-world communities?

Gamification for Community Building: Click to Shake Hands
Al Thani, Aoun, Vatanasakdakul · PACIS · 2025
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive On Monday morning, allocate budget to pilot a location-based gamified application in one of our company's facilities, specifically focusing on fostering cross-departmental collaboration by integrating 'location incentives' for shared project spaces.
  • IT Manager On Monday morning, schedule a meeting with your development team to discuss how to integrate elements like 'reward value' and 'achievement' into our existing internal communication platform to encourage more active participation and knowledge sharing.
  • Business Strategist On Monday morning, initiate a brainstorming session with your marketing and product teams to identify opportunities to leverage 'network influence' and 'herd behavior' in upcoming product launches or community outreach initiatives, perhaps by creating exclusive early-access groups.
  • Researcher On Monday morning, refine the survey instrument to include questions specifically measuring 'sense of belonging' and 'social motive' as distinct constructs, and prepare to recruit participants from diverse community groups for your next study.
  • Policymaker On Monday morning, direct your staff to research successful public policy initiatives that have used location-based incentives or gamification to encourage citizen engagement with local services or community events, and identify potential applications for our jurisdiction.
Cybersecurity & Privacy
Illustration for: Who is buying through social media in Qatar, which platforms do they use, and how often?

Key question

Who is buying through social media in Qatar, which platforms do they use, and how often?

Social Commerce in Qatar: Consumer Characteristics and Emergent Engagement
Vatanasakdakul, Aoun, Defiandry · AMCIS · 2025
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive On Monday morning, initiate a strategic review of existing IT infrastructure and security protocols to ensure they can adequately support and protect the growing volume of social commerce transactions, with a specific focus on enhancing mobile payment gateway integrations and data privacy measures for platforms like Instagram and WhatsApp.
  • IT Manager On Monday morning, task your team to audit the current analytics tracking for social media platforms, particularly Instagram and WhatsApp, to ensure accurate capture of user engagement and conversion data related to social commerce activities, and set up dashboards to monitor these metrics.
  • Business Strategist On Monday morning, draft a proposal to develop targeted social commerce campaigns on Instagram, prioritizing visually appealing content and influencer collaborations, specifically aimed at the 20-24 female demographic, mirroring their current high engagement in this space.
  • Researcher On Monday morning, begin outlining a follow-up research proposal focusing on qualitative insights into *why* Qatari consumers, particularly younger females, prefer Instagram for social commerce, exploring themes like trust, authenticity, and localized content.
  • Policymaker On Monday morning, request a briefing from relevant ministries to understand current regulations regarding digital marketing and e-commerce on social media platforms in Qatar, and identify any gaps that might need to be addressed to foster responsible growth of social commerce.
Digital Platforms
Illustration for: How does cloud computing affect energy use and carbon emissions across host and user countries?

Key question

How does cloud computing affect energy use and carbon emissions across host and user countries?

An Empirical Investigation of Cloud Computing and Environmental Performance of Nations: Implications for Shared Responsibility in Cloud Computing
Kim, Park, Dedrick · Journal of the AIS · 2025
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive On Monday morning, initiate a review of our current cloud infrastructure's geographical distribution and identify which of our cloud services are hosted in countries that are net importers of cloud services (i.e., benefiting from efficiency gains) versus countries that are net hosts of data centers. Then, begin drafting an internal memo to your team outlining the need to assess the environmental footprint of our chosen cloud providers, specifically focusing on the geographical location of their data centers.
  • IT Manager On Monday morning, compile a list of all cloud services currently utilized by your department and identify the primary cloud provider(s) for each. Then, locate and review the public documentation of these providers regarding their data center locations and any publicly available environmental sustainability reports or initiatives.
  • Business Strategist On Monday morning, begin by identifying which key business processes or customer-facing services are heavily reliant on cloud computing. Then, investigate if these services are currently being delivered from cloud infrastructure located in countries that are significant importers of cloud services or from countries that are major hosts of data centers, and flag this for further cost-benefit analysis that includes potential environmental externalities.
  • Researcher On Monday morning, start by drafting an email to your colleagues or supervisor proposing a follow-up study that quantifies the specific cross-border environmental impacts for a subset of countries using the methodologies outlined in this paper. Include a brief outline of the data you would need to gather, such as national IT service import/export data and detailed data center location information for key cloud providers.
  • Policymaker On Monday morning, draft a preliminary policy brief for your relevant committee or ministry that summarizes the key findings of this research regarding the uneven distribution of environmental burdens from cloud computing. Specifically, highlight the need for international dialogue on shared responsibility and propose an initial step to investigate incorporating environmental footprint data into public procurement policies for cloud services.
Cloud & Infrastructure
Illustration for: How can location analytics be integrated into academic research and teaching to meet modern business needs?

Key question

How can location analytics be integrated into academic research and teaching to meet modern business needs?

Location Analytics in Information Systems: Opportunities for Research and Teaching
Erskine, Pick, Satpathy, et al. · Communications of the AIS · 2024
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive On Monday morning, schedule a 30-minute meeting with your Head of Data Science and Head of Business Intelligence to discuss a pilot project integrating a basic spatial analysis layer (e.g., visualizing customer locations on a map) into one of your existing dashboards for a specific business unit.
  • IT Manager On Monday morning, identify one internal IT project or operational challenge (e.g., network outage analysis, data center resource allocation) that could potentially benefit from a spatial perspective, and research one readily available open-source geospatial tool (like QGIS) for initial exploration.
  • Business Strategist On Monday morning, review your current customer segmentation data and identify 2-3 key business questions that might be better answered by understanding the geographical distribution of your customers (e.g., optimal new store locations, targeted marketing campaigns by region).
  • Researcher On Monday morning, identify one of your current research projects and brainstorm 2-3 ways that incorporating spatial data or analysis (e.g., geographic clustering of events, spatial dependencies) could strengthen your theoretical contributions or add methodological rigor.
  • Policymaker On Monday morning, contact a representative from a local urban planning or environmental agency to inquire about any existing spatial datasets related to community infrastructure, resource distribution, or environmental impact that might be publicly accessible.
Data & Analytics
Illustration for: How can storytelling AI chatbots be used to engage students in learning about social engineering?

Key question

How can storytelling AI chatbots be used to engage students in learning about social engineering?

Storytelling Is Not Just for Children: Using an AI Chatbot to Engage University Students
Freeman · AIS SIGED Conference · 2025
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive On Monday morning, initiate a departmental meeting to discuss the potential integration of AI-powered scenario-based learning tools, like the one described in the research, to enhance student engagement in cybersecurity concepts and explore pilot program feasibility.
  • IT Manager On Monday morning, schedule a brainstorming session with your team to identify specific social engineering concepts within your curriculum that could be effectively simulated using an interactive AI chatbot and begin researching available AI chatbot platforms or development frameworks.
  • Business Strategist On Monday morning, analyze how the described AI chatbot's engagement model, which fosters 'teachable moments' through interactive storytelling, could be adapted to train employees on emerging cybersecurity threats or compliance protocols, identifying potential ROI.
  • Researcher On Monday morning, review the ethical guidelines identified in the research (data privacy, bias mitigation, content boundaries) and begin designing a framework for evaluating the ethical implications of deploying AI-driven educational tools in your next study.
  • Policymaker On Monday morning, draft a preliminary proposal for a grant or funding initiative that supports the development and implementation of innovative, AI-enhanced educational technologies in higher education, specifically mentioning the potential for improving cybersecurity education through interactive learning.
AI & Automation
Illustration for: How can managers use generative AI to turn expert insights into practical strategies for digital platforms?

Key question

How can managers use generative AI to turn expert insights into practical strategies for digital platforms?

Turning Tacit Knowledge into Dynamic Strategies Through Collective Inferencing
Rehm · MIS Quarterly Executive · 2025
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive On Monday morning, initiate a pilot project with your innovation team to test the 'differential analysis' step of the Collective Inference Method on a small, contained platform ecosystem. Gather 2-3 key internal stakeholders with diverse operational roles and feed their raw, unstructured operational challenges into a generative AI tool to identify initial tacit knowledge patterns.
  • IT Manager On Monday morning, schedule a 30-minute informal discussion with two of your most experienced support technicians. Ask them to describe in detail a recent complex troubleshooting scenario where they had to 'go beyond the documentation' to resolve the issue. Record their responses, focusing on the 'why' and 'how' of their intuitive decisions.
  • Business Strategist On Monday morning, identify one critical strategic decision your organization is facing that has significant ambiguity or conflicting stakeholder perspectives. Document the perceived goals and constraints of three different key stakeholder groups involved in this decision in their own words, without trying to structure them yet.
  • Researcher On Monday morning, select one publicly available case study of a failed platform strategy and manually extract all unstructured stakeholder feedback, forum discussions, or public comments related to its challenges. Categorize these snippets into broad areas of operational friction or unmet needs.
  • Policymaker On Monday morning, identify a specific public service delivery challenge where fragmented stakeholder input leads to inefficient or contradictory policy outcomes. Gather and print out the last 5 public consultation submissions from different community groups on this issue, without any initial analysis.
AI & Automation
Illustration for: How can business schools integrate location analytics into their curriculum and research to meet industry demand?

Key question

How can business schools integrate location analytics into their curriculum and research to meet industry demand?

Location Analytics in Information Systems: Opportunities for Research and Teaching
Erskine, Pick, Satpathy, et al. · Communications of the AIS · 2024
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive On Monday morning, task your IT strategy team to identify one current business challenge (e.g., supply chain optimization, customer segmentation) that could be significantly improved by incorporating location data, and schedule a brief exploratory meeting to discuss potential pilot projects using spatial analysis tools.
  • IT Manager On Monday morning, identify one existing data set within your organization that has inherent spatial components (e.g., customer addresses, store locations, sensor readings) and initiate a conversation with a data analyst about how to visualize and query this data using basic geospatial techniques.
  • Business Strategist On Monday morning, review your current strategic plan and identify two key business objectives where understanding 'where' things happen or are located could provide a competitive advantage or unlock new opportunities, then brainstorm potential data sources for that 'where'.
  • Researcher On Monday morning, identify one of your ongoing or future research projects that currently lacks a spatial dimension and draft a brief proposal outline for how integrating location analytics could address a key limitation or open new avenues of inquiry, referencing specific spatial methods mentioned in the literature.
  • Policymaker On Monday morning, reach out to a representative from a local university's Information Systems or Geography department to inquire about potential collaborations or pilot programs for integrating location analytics into business curricula, focusing on areas relevant to local economic development or public services.
Data & Analytics
Illustration for: How does making conversational agents appear more human affect customer reactions when errors occur?

Key question

How does making conversational agents appear more human affect customer reactions when errors occur?

Artificial Normality: How Conversational Agents’ Perceived Humanness Inhibits Error Attribution and Preserves Satisfaction
Brendel, Lichtenberg, Hildebrandt, et al. · Journal of Management Information Systems · 2026
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive On Monday morning, allocate budget to pilot the integration of more human-centric design principles (e.g., nuanced language, empathetic phrasing) into our core customer-facing conversational agent, focusing on areas where process errors are most common, to preemptively reduce user error attribution and maintain satisfaction.
  • IT Manager On Monday morning, task your development team to review our current conversational agent's dialogue logs for instances of process errors and identify the top 3 most frequent error types to begin redesigning their responses with more humanlike cues (e.g., slight pauses, conversational fillers) to normalize the situation for users.
  • Business Strategist On Monday morning, initiate a cross-functional workshop with marketing and product development to explore how to strategically position our conversational agents' perceived humanness in customer communications, emphasizing its role in creating a seamless experience even when minor technical glitches occur.
  • Researcher On Monday morning, begin designing a follow-up study that experimentally manipulates specific humanlike conversational features (e.g., varying levels of politeness, acknowledgment of difficulty) within a simulated error scenario to quantify their direct impact on error attribution and situational normality, building upon the findings of Artificial Normality.
  • Policymaker On Monday morning, convene a small working group to draft guidelines for the ethical development of conversational agents, recommending that AI design standards encourage the incorporation of humanlike qualities to enhance user experience and mitigate negative reactions to inevitable system errors, rather than solely focusing on pure efficiency.
Cybersecurity & Privacy
Illustration for: How can growing digital startups balance structured business processes with the flexibility needed to scale?

Key question

How can growing digital startups balance structured business processes with the flexibility needed to scale?

On the Potential of Business Process Management for Digital Entrepreneurship: Findings from a Literature Review
Wuttke, Haskamp, Perscheid, et al. · ICIS · 2023
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive On Monday morning, initiate a review of our current core digital processes (e.g., customer onboarding, product deployment) to identify specific components that could be modularized to allow for independent updates and scaling without disrupting the entire workflow.
  • IT Manager On Monday morning, schedule a 30-minute meeting with a key team member from sales or customer support to identify one friction point in their daily workflow that could be addressed by a small, agile process improvement, rather than a large, monolithic system change.
  • Business Strategist On Monday morning, dedicate an hour to mapping out the critical decision-making points in our growth strategy and outline potential process 'switches' or 'modes' that can be activated or deactivated based on market feedback or scaling needs, embodying ambidextrous BPM.
  • Researcher On Monday morning, begin by identifying three specific digital venture growth challenges (e.g., rapid customer acquisition, international expansion) and conceptualize how treating the *process of venturing itself* as a business process (i.e., defining, measuring, and iteratively improving the venture creation and growth cycle) could be studied.
  • Policymaker On Monday morning, draft a brief (one-page) outline of potential policy levers (e.g., startup support programs, digital skills training) that could foster the development of 'capabilities to balance flexibility and structure' within digital entrepreneurial ecosystems, focusing on practical implementation.
IS & Management
Illustration for: How do fast-growing digital ventures build and adapt their internal business processes to support growth?

Key question

How do fast-growing digital ventures build and adapt their internal business processes to support growth?

Building the Processes Behind the Product: How Digital Ventures Create Business Processes That Support Their Growth
Wuttke, Haskamp, Perscheid, et al. · Business & Information Systems Engineering · 2024
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive On Monday morning, initiate a review of our current proxy communication tool usage and explore options for centralizing our analytics systems to proactively address potential data silos as we scale.
  • IT Manager On Monday morning, identify one key operational process (e.g., sales lead qualification) that is currently human-orchestrated and explore if a 'minimum viable process' could be documented and supported by a low-specificity tool for immediate iteration.
  • Business Strategist On Monday morning, map out the current flow of data for our top 2 growth-driving products and identify one area where centralized data flow integration could significantly reduce friction and improve speed to market.
  • Researcher On Monday morning, begin compiling a list of digital ventures that have recently experienced rapid growth and categorize their initial process creation patterns based on the four distinct patterns identified in the research (MVP, encapsulated, centralized control, centralized data).
  • Policymaker On Monday morning, task a working group to investigate how current regulatory frameworks might be hindering the adoption of flexible, technology-enabled business processes in rapidly scaling digital ventures.
IS & Management
Illustration for: How well does ChatGPT perform on information systems course questions and professional certification exams?

Key question

How well does ChatGPT perform on information systems course questions and professional certification exams?

What Does ChatGPT Know About Information Systems?
O’Leary, Storey, French, et al. · Communications of the AIS · 2025
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive On Monday morning, task your IT training lead to pilot a small internal workshop for a select group of IT professionals focusing on the PMP and Microsoft Azure Administrator certifications, using ChatGPT as a supplementary learning tool to identify specific knowledge gaps and assess its effectiveness in preparing for these professional exams.
  • IT Manager On Monday morning, instruct your team members responsible for generating internal documentation or knowledge base articles to compare the accuracy and completeness of ChatGPT's initial drafts on at least two core Information Systems topics (e.g., database management, network security) against your existing, verified internal resources.
  • Business Strategist On Monday morning, task a market analyst to explore potential use cases for ChatGPT in rapidly generating initial drafts of business process documentation or competitive analysis reports within your IS domain, noting its tendency to provide structured information over deep critical thinking.
  • Researcher On Monday morning, design a controlled experiment to compare ChatGPT's performance on retrieving specific, factual information about IS concepts in a closed-book scenario versus an open-book scenario using publicly available academic papers, to validate the finding about its performance in different exam environments.
  • Policymaker On Monday morning, request a briefing from your education and technology policy advisors on the implications of AI tools like ChatGPT achieving 'average student' performance in IS education, and explore potential guidelines for incorporating such tools responsibly in curriculum development and assessment.
AI & Automation
Illustration for: How do individual user behaviors and attitudes impact the business value generated from process mining?

Key question

How do individual user behaviors and attitudes impact the business value generated from process mining?

Unpacking the Role of Individuals in Process Mining: A Literature Review and Research Framework
Dyong, Franzoi, vom Brocke · ECIS · 2026
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive Initiate a data audit of the source pipelines feeding your enterprise process mining tools to eliminate data discrepancies, directly addressing the research finding that data inaccuracies severely undermine user trust and derail tool adoption.
  • IT Manager Add a mandatory 'Hypothesis-First' template to your team's process mining workflow on Monday morning, requiring analysts to document their specific diagnostic hypothesis before running queries to enforce structured behavior and reduce analysis duration.
  • Business Strategist Redesign the process mining ROI dashboard to measure actual business value outcomes (e.g., cost savings from process changes) rather than user log-in frequency, linking individual analytical insights directly to operational KPIs.
  • Researcher Draft a research design for a longitudinal study tracking 20 process mining analysts over six months to capture the sequential and temporal dynamics of user affect and trust, directly addressing the static limitations of current literature.
  • Policymaker Establish an internal organizational standard mandating that no department may deploy process mining software without integrating a formal training and methodological guidance program, ensuring compliant and high-quality data execution.
Operations & Supply Chain
Illustration for: How does digital transformation affect a nonprofit's identity, and how are resulting internal conflicts resolved?

Key question

How does digital transformation affect a nonprofit's identity, and how are resulting internal conflicts resolved?

Nonprofits' Digital Transformation: Understanding Organisational Identity Dynamics
Torres, Pchel, Zimmer, et al. · ECIS · 2026
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive Meet with your internal communications lead on Monday morning to rewrite the launch narrative of your current digital initiative; frame the IT upgrades not as a 'system migration for efficiency,' but as a vital strategic weapon designed to help your activists defeat the organization's primary external adversary.
  • IT Manager Identify the regional office or department most resistant to the new software rollout and schedule a 30-minute call with their team leader on Monday morning to ask how the system can be configured to protect their local autonomy, rather than forcing a standardized corporate workflow.
  • Business Strategist Review your draft digital strategy document first thing Monday morning and audit its vocabulary; strip out commercial, for-profit terminology like 'customer acquisition,' 'user monetization,' and 'ROI,' replacing them with values-driven terms like 'supporter mobilization' and 'mission impact.'
  • Researcher On Monday morning, draft a outreach email to directors of three small, community-based local charities to pitch a comparative study, testing if the five-period recursive digital transformation model identified at Greenpeace holds true in non-federated, resource-constrained nonprofit settings.
  • Policymaker On Monday morning, update your organization's digital funding policy and grant application templates to remove mandatory 'commercial viability' metrics, instead requiring applicants to demonstrate how the requested digital grant will reinforce and scale their core mission-based values.
Digital Transformation
Illustration for: How does continuous digital reporting affect emotional pressure, trust, and staff autonomy in childcare centers?

Key question

How does continuous digital reporting affect emotional pressure, trust, and staff autonomy in childcare centers?

When We Cannot Stop the Data Flow: The Emotional Life of Data in a Children’s Daycare Center
Püchel, Brandt · ECIS · 2026
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive On Monday morning, reconfigure your enterprise communication and tracking platforms to aggregate non-critical status updates into a single daily digest at 4:00 PM, rather than allowing real-time push notifications, to actively break the expectation of continuous monitoring.
  • IT Manager On Monday morning, audit the daycare platform's dashboard interface and replace all default automatic 'No Data' warning flags or empty progress bars with a neutral status indicator to eliminate the false perception of operational risk during quiet hours.
  • Business Strategist On Monday morning, draft and distribute a 'Communication Cadence Agreement' to clients that explicitly sets the expectation of only two digital updates per day, actively framing this slower rhythm as a premium service feature that ensures staff are focused on active care rather than screens.
  • Researcher On Monday morning, draft a research proposal to conduct a comparative diary study of frontline workers in relationship-heavy sectors like eldercare, specifically measuring the psychological friction and time spent on 'situated compliance' tasks versus actual patient care.
  • Policymaker On Monday morning, draft a policy amendment for child and eldercare labor standards that prohibits the use of real-time telemetry and continuous digital logging frequency as metrics for assessing staff performance and regulatory compliance.
Data & Analytics
Illustration for: How should teams structure initial challenges to successfully launch AI projects?

Key question

How should teams structure initial challenges to successfully launch AI projects?

The Anatomy of a Design Challenge for Initiating AI Innovation
Röckel, van Giffen, Janson, et al. · ECIS · 2026
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive Mandate that all upcoming AI project proposals use a standardized 'Design Challenge' charter template structured around the 4 robust elements (verb, object of innovation, target group, context) and 3 plastic elements (internal data, technology, potential), explicitly forbidding teams from locking in a rigid technical architecture in their initial pitch.
  • IT Manager Gather your interdisciplinary project team for a 60-minute workshop on Monday morning to co-create a 'Design Challenge' statement, explicitly defining the stable 'robust' elements to align the business and tech members, while leaving the 'plastic' elements (like specific data sources and AI models) open as flexible targets to be negotiated as the project progresses.
  • Business Strategist Review your company's AI project portfolio on Monday morning and intentionally rewrite the 'object of innovation' for each project: frame them as 'modular' if you need predictable, incremental improvements, or rewrite them as 'space-based' (e.g., focused on broad capabilities) if you want to push the team toward radical, disruptive business model innovation.
  • Researcher Update your qualitative coding scheme for ongoing field studies of AI adoption to track how frequently and at what project stages teams modify the 'plastic' elements (internal data, technology, potential) versus the 'robust' elements of their project charters to measure the empirical threshold where technological uncertainty triggers project misalignment.
  • Policymaker Revise the application guidelines for the upcoming public AI innovation grant cycle to replace rigid 'technical specifications' requirements with a mandatory 'Design Challenge' framework, scoring applicants on the clarity of their robust elements (target group, context) and the adaptive flexibility of their plastic elements (data and technology integration plans).
Cloud & Infrastructure
Illustration for: How does using ChatGPT affect worker performance, workload, and their sense of ownership over problem-solving tasks?

Key question

How does using ChatGPT affect worker performance, workload, and their sense of ownership over problem-solving tasks?

Support or Substitution: How ChatGPT Affects Cognitive Load, Ownership, and Performance in Problem-Solving
Freise, Moritz · ECIS · 2026
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive Sign off on the procurement and scheduling of a mandatory 'AI Literacy and Collaborative Prompting' training program for all departments currently using generative AI, rather than just distributing licenses, to actively counter the erosion of psychological ownership and help staff manage cognitive load.
  • IT Manager Schedule a 30-minute team meeting to establish a 'Human-in-the-Loop' workflow review protocol, requiring team members to explicitly document, edit, and present their personal contributions to any ChatGPT-generated deliverables to re-establish psychological ownership over their outcomes.
  • Business Strategist Draft a proposal to revise departmental key performance indicators (KPIs), shifting the metrics of success from speed and volume (temporal savings) to qualitative, human-curated excellence to prevent employees from disengaging and treating their roles as outsourced, low-ownership tasks.
  • Researcher Write a research proposal for a multi-week longitudinal field study with a cohort of at least 250 participants to track whether the observed short-term reduction in psychological ownership from AI usage leads to long-term employee disengagement or performance declines over time.
  • Policymaker Publish a revised corporate governance policy that defines a 'Responsible Authorship' standard, mandating that the human employee remains 100% accountable for the accuracy and quality of AI-assisted outputs to prevent the dilution of organizational responsibility.
Human-Computer Interaction
Illustration for: How can educators effectively teach modern industrial software skills without expensive physical equipment?

Key question

How can educators effectively teach modern industrial software skills without expensive physical equipment?

Towards Design Principles for Teaching Industry 4.0 Competencies to CS/IS Students
Salcher · ECIS · 2026
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive Direct your enterprise architecture team to draft a transition plan to replace physical IT hardware training labs with virtualized, containerized sandbox environments (e.g., Docker/Kubernetes) to reduce infrastructure costs and align onboarding with modern Industry 4.0 software architectures.
  • IT Manager Review the programming prerequisites of your junior developers and assign them a structured, hands-on troubleshooting task using a containerized microservice mock-up on Monday morning to assess their readiness for complex Industry 4.0 integration projects.
  • Business Strategist Reallocate a portion of next quarter's talent development budget away from high-cost physical equipment training and toward scalable, software-based virtual simulators to cost-effectively build digital twin and data architecture competencies.
  • Researcher Draft a research proposal to conduct a multi-institution comparative study on these eight design principles, incorporating objective pre- and post-intervention technical testing rather than relying on subjective student feedback to measure competency gains.
  • Policymaker Create a state-level educational grant initiative that incentivizes higher education institutions to update computer science curricula with virtualization-based Industry 4.0 frameworks, shifting funding priority away from physical learning factories.
Operations & Supply Chain
Illustration for: Can real-time advice keep citizens engaged in collecting local heat data using wearable sensors?

Key question

Can real-time advice keep citizens engaged in collecting local heat data using wearable sensors?

A Context-Aware Urban Heat Companion for Prosumer Participatory Sensing and Just-in-Time Adaptive Intervention
von Heyden, Kuhlmeier, Parsons, et al. · ECIS · 2026
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive Authorize a pilot project to integrate on-device, context-aware processing capabilities into the company's mobile application roadmap, shifting away from centralized cloud polling to enable low-latency, real-time push notifications driven by on-device sensor data.
  • IT Manager Update the push-notification system's scheduling logic to restrict alerts to high-relevance afternoon windows (12:00 PM to 4:00 PM) and truncate copy to short, single-action prompts like 'Hydration & Cooling' to maximize user compliance rates.
  • Business Strategist Redesign the incentive structure of our data-collection app to offer immediate, personalized 'micro-utility' benefits—such as real-time local comfort scores—directly to the user upon data submission, mitigating long-term participation fatigue.
  • Researcher Draft a research proposal and power analysis for a randomized controlled trial (RCT) with a target sample size of at least 150 participants to statistically validate the behavioral impacts and compliance rates of the Heat Companion's adaptive interventions.
  • Policymaker Draft a municipal initiative to equip outdoor public-sector employees (such as postal or sanitation workers) with wearable micro-climate sensors to map urban heat islands where official weather stations lack coverage.
Sustainability & Green IS
Illustration for: What competing tensions and trade-offs do leaders face when guiding national quantum computing ecosystems?

Key question

What competing tensions and trade-offs do leaders face when guiding national quantum computing ecosystems?

Orchestration Paradoxes in National Quantum Computing Innovation Ecosystems
Taipale, Tyrväinen, Tuunanen, et al. · ECIS · 2026
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive Schedule a 9:00 AM meeting with your lead enterprise architect to audit your current quantum-readiness roadmap, establishing a formal policy that divides software development and hardware access investments 50/50 to hedge against the performance tension of committing prematurely to a single unproven hardware stack.
  • IT Manager Create a bi-weekly 1-hour 'Quantum Cross-Training' slot in your team's calendar starting this Friday, pairing your specialized quantum physics PhDs with your generalist cloud engineers to address the learning tension between narrow technical specialization and broad-based systems integration.
  • Business Strategist Perform a revenue dependency audit to calculate the percentage of your quantum business unit's funding derived from state grants versus commercial clients, and draft a pitch deck for two private-sector pilots to actively transition away from 'godfather' state-funding reliance.
  • Researcher Draft a pre-competitive collaboration agreement template to send to a peer researcher at a competing institution, outlining a shared framework for baseline algorithm testing while clearly defining IP boundaries to manage the tension of collaboration versus resource competition.
  • Policymaker Draft a revision for the upcoming national quantum funding round guidelines that introduces a 'co-investment requirement,' mandating that state-funded consortia secure at least 25% of their budget from private corporate buyers to counter the 'godfather' dependency paradox.
Operations & Supply Chain
Illustration for: How do people's personality traits shape the way they design their avatars in virtual worlds?

Key question

How do people's personality traits shape the way they design their avatars in virtual worlds?

Avatar Design and User Personality Traits: Systematic Literature Review on Identity Construction Through Avatar in the Metaverse
Kim, Zamani, Spanaki · ECIS · 2026
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive On Monday morning, sign off on a procurement budget to upgrade the remote team's hardware from standard webcams to high-fidelity VR headsets with motion-tracking capabilities, directly leveraging the finding that immersive hardware systematically increases presence, embodiment, and professional user-avatar behavioral alignment in virtual workspaces.
  • IT Manager On Monday morning, reconfigure the onboarding settings of your company's virtual collaboration platform (e.g., Microsoft Mesh) to offer two distinct avatar creation paths: a fast-track 'realistic photo-to-avatar' tool to satisfy conscientious employees who value physical resemblance, and an 'advanced creative' toolkit with diverse assets for employees high in openness.
  • Business Strategist On Monday morning, restructure the digital product roadmap for your virtual storefront to prioritize two distinct, personality-targeted microtransaction lines: a premium line of highly visible, socially expressive, and outgoing avatar accessories for extraverted users, and a baseline line of realistic, professional attire for highly conscientious users.
  • Researcher On Monday morning, draft a research proposal and IRB application for a comparative study tracking avatar customization behaviors of non-English-speaking users in modern, high-fidelity platforms (like VRChat or Horizon Worlds), explicitly addressing the current literature limitations regarding English-only studies and outdated Second Life data.
  • Policymaker On Monday morning, draft an organizational 'Metaverse Identity Privacy Policy' that explicitly bans the algorithmic profiling of users based on their self-avatar discrepancy, ensuring that users (particularly women experiencing identity discrepancy related to neuroticism) are protected from targeted behavioral manipulation or bias based on their digital representations.
Digital Platforms
Illustration for: How can organizations design and use artificial intelligence to support circular economy practices?

Key question

How can organizations design and use artificial intelligence to support circular economy practices?

The AI-Enabled Circular Economy: Extracting and Synthesizing Design Knowledge
Eckert, Hoppe-Ludwig, Strohmann, et al. · ECIS · 2026
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive Schedule a 9:00 AM workshop with your Enterprise Architecture and Sustainability teams to map your organization's existing data infrastructure against the study's two-layered framework, explicitly linking your micro-level AI model choices with macro-level organizational capabilities to support circular workflows.
  • IT Manager Initiate a pilot project on your team's backlog to deploy a predictive maintenance model on a single class of high-wear manufacturing assets, using telemetry data to forecast asset degradation and automatically trigger life-extending maintenance tickets.
  • Business Strategist Conduct a value-chain audit to identify where materials are lost, and draft a business case for integrating computer vision and robotic sorting systems at your primary waste-handling facility to automate material classification and close resource loops.
  • Researcher Draft a research proposal for a 12-month longitudinal field study in partnership with a local electronics manufacturer to empirically validate the paper's four synthesized meta-principles in a real-world operational environment, addressing the literature's lack of longitudinal testing.
  • Policymaker Draft a policy memo proposing a targeted grant program that provides R&D tax credits to industrial recycling facilities that implement integrated computer vision and automated sorting systems to improve regional material recycling rates.
IS & Management
Illustration for: How can businesses use artificial intelligence to transition their business models toward sustainability?

Key question

How can businesses use artificial intelligence to transition their business models toward sustainability?

From Brown to Green: How AI-Driven Transformation Enables Business Model Reconfiguration in the Twin Transition
Mosconi, Boudreau · ECIS · 2026
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive Initiate an audit of legacy data pipelines to identify bottlenecks for AI integration, and establish a 'green sandbox' environment with relaxed governance rules to allow developers to experiment with asset-durability algorithms while tracking model energy consumption.
  • IT Manager Hold a 30-minute team sync to map out existing data engineering skill gaps and assign one developer to clean and structure a single historical dataset of asset lifecycle performance to prepare it for future AI model training.
  • Business Strategist Draft a pilot proposal to transition one high-trust client from hourly billing to a recurring, outcome-based pricing model focused on extending their asset lifecycle, and schedule a meeting with operational managers to align on realistic, incremental milestones.
  • Researcher Design a survey instrument targeting business and IT leaders across multiple industries to quantitatively test whether the perceptual gap between executive (radical) and operational (incremental) views on AI-driven green transitions exists outside of the engineering sector.
  • Policymaker Draft a policy brief proposing a targeted grant program that subsidizes data-engineering upskilling and offsets energy-efficiency auditing costs for mid-sized firms adopting AI-enabled, sustainable business models.
IS & Management
Illustration for: What tensions arise when pursuing digital and sustainability goals together, and how do organizations manage them?

Key question

What tensions arise when pursuing digital and sustainability goals together, and how do organizations manage them?

Navigating the Twin Transition: A Paradox Perspective on Concurrent Digital and Sustainability Change
Stumkat, Stockhinger · ECIS · 2026
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive On Monday morning, update your organization's 'Definition of Done' (DoD) for all software release pipelines to mandate that any major code deployment must include a documented estimate of its cloud carbon footprint (using tools like Cloud Carbon Footprint) alongside traditional speed and cost metrics.
  • IT Manager On Monday morning, during your weekly sprint planning, introduce one concrete green-coding or UI accessibility standard (such as optimizing image compression to reduce data transfer energy) to the active backlog, demonstrating to your team how to integrate sustainability into fast-paced IT iterations.
  • Business Strategist On Monday morning, review your active digital transformation roadmaps and replace any assumptions of automatic 'twin transition' synergies with a formal risk register that explicitly maps out where digital speed and carbon-reduction goals conflict, scheduling a sequenced timeline for which priority takes precedence at each milestone.
  • Researcher On Monday morning, draft a research proposal for a longitudinal, multi-sector quantitative survey targeting CIOs across Europe to statistically test the generalizability of the four identified twin-transition tensions beyond the single-case IT service provider context.
  • Policymaker On Monday morning, initiate the draft of a voluntary 'Green IT Integration' compliance guide that provides businesses with standardized templates to formalize digital-sustainability KPIs, helping them move from fragmented employee-led initiatives to structured, audit-ready corporate reporting.
Digital Transformation
Illustration for: Which approach best helps AI assistants translate imperfect user prompts into accurate database queries?

Key question

Which approach best helps AI assistants translate imperfect user prompts into accurate database queries?

Designing for Imperfect Prompts: A Simulation-Based Evaluation of an LLM-Based Enterprise Data Assistant Using Knowledge Graphs
Wagner, Mdche · ECIS · 2026
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive Issue a directive to transition the enterprise's LLM-based data assistant architecture away from simple schema-based semantic similarity matching and onto a Knowledge Graph-based mediation layer constructed from database schemas to capture the demonstrated 12% to 21% precision improvements.
  • IT Manager Instruct your database and engineering teams to begin constructing a Knowledge Graph from your current database schemas to serve as a semantic mediation layer for your LLM assistant, replacing manual prompt engineering.
  • Business Strategist Launch a pilot program within the CFO business unit to deploy the Knowledge Graph-based data assistant, leveraging its verified ability to resolve incomplete, domain-specific prompts into accurate database queries for business users.
  • Researcher Draft a research proposal to test the Knowledge Graph-based mediation layer in a live, real-world field deployment to gather empirical performance data beyond the current study's simulation of 158 interactions across 29 users.
  • Policymaker Draft an internal data governance policy requiring that all natural-language LLM interfaces querying corporate databases must use a schema-derived Knowledge Graph mediation layer to ensure structural query alignment and prevent inaccurate data retrieval.
Cloud & Infrastructure
Illustration for: How effectively can artificial intelligence tools screen and extract information from complex procurement documents?

Key question

How effectively can artificial intelligence tools screen and extract information from complex procurement documents?

Rethinking Knowledge Work: Designing LLM-Based Systems for Complexity Management
Diener, Kaps, Spitzer, et al. · ECIS · 2026
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive On Monday morning, issue an IT directive mandating that any generative AI tools deployed for document screening must include a 'human-in-the-loop' verification interface, explicitly prohibiting automated final submissions due to the system's average 11.18% error rate in text extraction.
  • IT Manager On Monday morning, configure your document-processing pipeline's UI to visually highlight and force manual validation of 'type of service' and 'required references' fields, as the research shows these have lower extraction accuracies (79.4% and 76.5%) compared to highly reliable fields like 'procuring entity' (94.1%).
  • Business Strategist On Monday morning, calculate the potential ROI of deploying an LLM-based screening tool for your proposal-writing team, using the study's proven 59% reduction in initial document screening time (down to 1 minute 30 seconds per document) to project resource hours saved.
  • Researcher On Monday morning, write a research proposal to extend this design science framework by testing it on a dataset larger than 34 documents across multi-industry and non-German settings, focusing specifically on optimizing prompts to improve the low 76.5% accuracy baseline for identifying required references.
  • Policymaker On Monday morning, initiate a draft proposal for public procurement formatting standards that mandates standardized, machine-readable sections for 'required certifications' and 'references' to minimize AI extraction errors (currently at 8.8% and 23.5% respectively) and ensure fair bidding processes for SMEs.
AI & Automation
Illustration for: How does using generative AI in everyday work change how management consulting firms operate and deliver value?

Key question

How does using generative AI in everyday work change how management consulting firms operate and deliver value?

How Generative AI Drives Field-Level Change in Management Consulting
Killewald, Haskamp · ECIS · 2026
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive Integrate an automated 'Validation Gateway' into the firm’s proprietary GenAI workspace that blocks users from exporting drafts into client-ready formats (like PPTX or PDF) until they complete a digital checklist verifying the accuracy and sources of the underlying data.
  • IT Manager Set up a weekly automated audit report in your GenAI usage analytics platform to identify teams with high-volume AI prompt generations but low average document-editing times, and flag these teams for manual quality-assurance reviews.
  • Business Strategist Redesign the firm's standard client engagement proposal template to phase out hourly billing for commoditized deliverables (like market research summaries) and replace it with value-based pricing focused on human-led strategic judgment workshops.
  • Researcher Draft a quantitative survey instrument targeting 500 management consultants across North America and Asia to test if the qualitative mechanisms of 'skill polarity' and 'provisionality of reliance' negatively correlate with long-term client retention metrics.
  • Policymaker Introduce an industry-standard certification framework for professional service firms that mandates documented 'human-in-the-loop' validation protocols and minimum structured mentoring hours to protect junior workforce development against generative AI skill erosion.
AI & Automation
Illustration for: How does artificial intelligence compare to experienced human planners when forecasting cafeteria meal demand?

Key question

How does artificial intelligence compare to experienced human planners when forecasting cafeteria meal demand?

Schnitzel-Prediction: Designing Human–AI Collaboration for Cafeteria Demand Forecasting
Cappel, Strohmann, Burger, et al. · ECIS · 2026
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive Issue a directive to your enterprise architecture team to halt all pure-automation forecasting initiatives and mandate that any future demand-planning software deployments integrate a 'human-in-the-loop' interface, specifically reserving override capabilities for experienced frontline staff in high-uncertainty scenarios.
  • IT Manager Create a task in your team's active development sprint to build an LLM-powered semantic tagging feature for your menu database, and pair it with a simple UI override slider on the kitchen manager's dashboard to let them manually adjust AI-generated forecasts for newly introduced dishes.
  • Business Strategist Review your cafeteria's historical food waste logs and restructure the kitchen managers' weekly KPIs to incentivize them to manually audit and adjust automated algorithmic forecasts, focusing their human intervention specifically on novel menu items where historical data is sparse.
  • Researcher Draft a grant proposal for a multi-site, longitudinal study that replicates the 'SCHNITZEL-PREDICTION' methodology across five different corporate catering firms over a six-month period to overcome the single-case and 24-day evaluation limitations of this study.
  • Policymaker Draft an update to the public sector sustainable procurement guidelines requiring that any government-funded cafeteria software tenders mandate human-AI collaborative interfaces rather than fully automated solutions to actively prevent food waste caused by algorithmic 'cold-start' forecasting failures.
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