The impact of generative AI on meaningful work in creative and knowledge-intensive professions - collaborative partner or threat?

The project examines how the use of generative AI (GAI) in work affects people’s experiences of meaningfulness at work. Meaningfulness is central to emotional and existential well-being, work motivation, and the quality of work performance, and it is also significant for organizational outcomes. Previous research—largely theoretical and future-oriented—suggests that GAI is reshaping particularly creative and knowledge-intensive work processes by altering their structure, content, and conditions of professional practice, which in turn may influence how meaningful work is experienced.

Building on this, the project studies how GAI is adopted on the initiative of professionals in different types of work and how this relates to meaningfulness, professional identity, and the form and content of work processes. A comparative approach is central, examining similarities and differences between creative professionals and knowledge workers in both the private and public sectors.

Research questions

How does the use of GAI enable or constrain creative professionals’ and knowledge workers’ experiences of meaningfulness at work? What similarities and differences exist between the occupational groups?

How do creative professionals and knowledge workers experience, use, and understand GAI in their work? What similarities and differences exist between the occupational groups?

How does GAI affect creative and knowledge-intensive professionals’ perceived professional identities and occupational roles? What similarities and differences exist between the occupational groups?

How does GAI affect the form and content of creative and knowledge-intensive work processes? What similarities and differences exist between the occupational groups?

Empirically, the study is based on semi-structured interviews, focus group interviews, and workshops with established professionals in GAI-exposed creative and knowledge-intensive occupations. The object of analysis is experiences of meaningfulness in work processes that involve the use of GAI technology as a means to achieve work outcomes. The material is analyzed using an interpretive and thematic approach, through which recurring patterns, variations, and tensions in participants’ experiences are identified and related to how work is organized and valued.

The project contributes to research on technology and working life by illuminating how contemporary forms of automation and digitalization affect job quality, work content, work processes, and occupational roles. The project’s societal relevance lies in the fact that knowledge about how GAI influences the organization of work and its perceived quality is central to understanding and managing AI’s effects on existential, economic, and social values in working life, such as humanity, productivity, motivation, and sustainability. The results can inform work design and leadership in organizations, contribute to organizational and societal AI policy development, and strengthen the conditions for the ethical and long-term sustainable use of AI.