EMANAIRE
AI is changing how we work.
How do we keep the capacity
to shape what comes next?
Keeping people
able to shape their work.
AI is changing how organisations make decisions, use expertise and coordinate work. It can expand what people are able to do, while also changing who has a voice, who carries responsibility and how professional judgement develops. The challenge is to make these changes work for people: to sustain their ability to understand decisions, question them and influence the conditions of their working lives.
This is what EMANAIRE means by human agency. It depends on choices made across an organisation, from the rules leaders establish to the ways colleagues share information and learn on the job. These choices are connected. Delegating a task to AI can change a team's relationships, the expertise it develops and the career opportunities available to its members.
EMANAIRE brings together doctoral researchers, universities and partner organisations to investigate these connections where work happens. Our research examines leadership, everyday practices, collaboration, and skills and careers across different organisational settings and over time. By connecting evidence from these areas, we aim to help organisations make informed choices about AI and develop ways of working that give people a meaningful role in shaping change.
Four tensions of
the AI-augmented organisation.
Each tension is the subject of one research work package and its doctoral projects.
Leadership & governance
How do organisational ambitions for AI translate into everyday decisions? We examine how leadership and governance shape its use, where rules meet practical judgement, and how people share responsibility for the decisions that follow.
Explore the projectsSkills & careers
What do today's choices about AI mean for tomorrow's expertise? We examine how adoption affects learning, skills and career opportunities over time, and how organisations can pursue immediate improvements while sustaining people's capacity to develop.
Explore the projectsSocial dynamics & collaboration
Who benefits when AI becomes part of a team? We examine how access to AI and its use in communication reshape trust, relationships and interdependence, and what helps people retain a voice in shared work.
Explore the projectsWork practices & workflows
How does AI change the work people actually do? We examine how workers adapt tasks, roles and routines, and how organisations can support individual initiative while maintaining dependable coordination and a good experience of work.
Explore the projectsWhat we
offer you.
As an EMANAIRE doctoral researcher, you will develop your own project within an international research community, with academic supervision, shared training and opportunities to work with organisations facing these questions in practice.
Research
You will investigate a focused question about AI and work with support from academic supervisors and the wider network. Your project will connect with research across organisations and countries, giving you opportunities to compare findings, discuss methods and develop an original contribution to understanding how people shape AI adoption.
Practice
You will connect your research with questions that matter to employers, public bodies and other organisations. Planned secondments and access to sector expertise create opportunities to understand working practices, develop research questions with practitioners and explore how findings can inform decisions about AI, work design and people's development.
Interdisciplinarity
You will work alongside researchers in management, psychology, sociology, communication, organisation studies and information systems. This gives you a wider set of ideas for studying AI at work, while developing depth in your own field. Shared discussions help you connect individual experience with team relationships and organisational choices.
Training
You will combine doctoral study at your host university with shared schools, methods workshops and research seminars across the network. The programme supports your development in research methods, academic writing and communicating the value of your work. Supervision and career development support help you connect that learning with your research and professional goals.
