Doctoral researcher at Tampere University, Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences, Doctoral programme of Humans and Technologies. This is my digital notebook.
I have been exploring digital phenomena for the last 16 years. I started my academic path in the University of Turku, Digital Culture as my major, in 2007. Since that I have been involved in digital environments, either as a research assistant, digital planner and content creator, and now as a doctoral researcher. I have been exploring the rise of social media, game cultures and pervasive gaming, search engine optimisation and marketing and human-AI interaction and collaboration. I do not get tired of exploring humans being in digitalised environment – the benefits and challenges of technology, and our interdependent and mutually constituting relationship with it. How to keep up with the accelerating speed of technology development and still remain humans? This is what I am inspired by, everyday.
Currently I am working with my dissertation research about AI and expert work, focusing on professional domains which are increasingly enhanced with and challenged by novel AI systems and tools: 1) recruitment, 2) accounting and 3) real estate. These case studies provide examples of AI applications that either automate certain work tasks, augment domain experts’ cognitive capabilities, or disrupt current practices. The primary data of this multi-case study consists of domain expert users’ semi-structured interviews: my research approach is interpretative and I wish to understand domain experts experiences and meanings; the actual affect AI has on their work practices and expertise. I explore this topic using theoretical lenses of trust and power, contributing on the fields of Human-Computer Interaction and Information System Science. However, I believe my dissertation serves also cultural history of technology by exploring and capturing the embeddedness of AI into modern work-life.
By conducting an in-depth inductive thematic analysis, my dissertation creates an empirical and socio-technical understanding about AI in expert work, domain experts’ user experience and expertise in AI-era. Basically, how to gain AI benefits without losing our expert knowledge – an asset for a stable, knowledge-driven society.
I am happy to visit your organisation to talk more about the expertise in AI-era, either in Finnish or English. You can contact me by email: saara.ala-luopa (at) tuni.fi.
Human being in a digital world 