Caroline Barrett, University of York

Lutfun Nahar Lata, Murdoch University

Daniel Muzio, University of York

François Schoenberger, University of Oxford

This special issue examines how artificial intelligence and algorithmic management are reshaping professional work, situating current technological changes within a longer historical context of technological reconfiguration. It investigates whether AI threatens professional expertise by making knowledge more accessible or whether expertise remains fundamentally relational and generated through human interactions.

The call explores how power may shift as new AI-focused occupations emerge while established professions face disruption from new entrants and business models. Within professional service firms, hierarchical structures may flatten as AI reduces demand for junior professionals. The collection also addresses how these transformations impact individual professionals' identities, agency, and the ethical questions arising in AI-integrated practice.

Drawing on momentum from a successful conference stream, this open call welcomes global research spanning healthcare, creative labour, knowledge services, higher education, and the professions of those who build AI systems themselves.

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Potential topics

• How AI displaces or enhances professional work; implications of AI-driven knowledge accessibility for occupational closure; erosion or evolution of professions as exclusive knowledge domains
• New business models challenging traditional regulation; AI's impact on hierarchies, leverage ratios, and power dynamics; role of legacy institutions in mediating change; new forms of organizational experimentation
• Shifting lived experiences, identities, and agency of individual professionals; emerging essential skills such as digital literacy and ethical reasoning; new ethical challenges; adaptation of professional training; forms of resistance or compliance to algorithmic oversight
• The rise or decline of specific occupations due to AI; potential resurgence of manual and craft labour; how professionals are shaping the future of their fields; emerging alternative models of professionalism
• Healthcare and diagnostic expertise, particularly AI implementation in medical imaging, digital documentation, and radiology
• Algorithmic transformations and emerging collective agency among journalists, visual media freelancers, and creative workers
• Disruption or transition of traditional expertise across legal sectors, translation platforms, and academic institutions
• How data scientists, ML engineers, computer programmers, and data analysts find their own elite expertise reconfigured by AI systems they build
• Shifting lived experiences, professional identities, and relational reinforcement of client expertise in modern institutional settings

Timeline

• Invalid DateTime: Expected Publication
• July 1, 2026: Proposal consideration
• September 1, 2026: Call for Papers Issued
• March 1, 2027: Review Process & Revisions
• June 1, 2027: Submission Deadline for Full Papers