Research: An Overview

Research at the Chair of Information Management and Information Systems focuses on the design, use and impact of modern, increasingly AI-supported information systems in organizations. The focus is not on the development of AI methods as an end in itself, but on the question of how artificial intelligence can be integrated into operational information systems, processes and decision-making structures so that it contributes to improved organizational performance, learning ability and sustainable value creation.

In particular, the effects of AI-based systems on operational processes, organizational structures, decision-making logics and forms of learning and working are examined. Another focus is on the analysis and design of architectures, design principles and governance structures that are required to operate such systems effectively, scalably and responsibly. Methodologically, the research follows a design-oriented, socio-technical approach that systematically combines business and information technology perspectives.

Artificial intelligence plays a functional and integrative role in this research profile. In addition to the application of established AI processes, scientific contributions are also made to the further development of methods, for example in the area of assistance and recommendation systems. However, the focus is clearly on embedding these methods in real organizational contexts in the context of business informatics and not on basic AI research.

Conceptually, the research profile can be described by the model of the smart enterprise. This refers to an organization that is capable of learning and adapting and that designs its strategic, operational and cultural structures in such a way that data, experiences and interactions are systematically used to generate organizational knowledge. In contrast to purely digitalized or exclusively data-driven companies, the use of technology - especially artificial intelligence - is understood as a conscious design process of organizational intelligence development. Key features are adaptive control mechanisms, integrated information and knowledge structures and the complementary interaction of people and AI-based systems.

The Smart Enterprise Engineering research area has been established at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) in Lower Saxony for the systematic further development and practical testing of this understanding of research. The research area functions as an institutional sphere of activity for the chair's research. The addition "Engineering" makes it clear that the work goes beyond conceptual analyses and addresses the concrete design, implementation and evaluation of AI-supported information systems, architectures and organizational solutions in real application contexts.