<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>This study focuses on the development of a specific type of Intelligent Agents — Business Virtual Assistants (BVA). The paper aims to identify the scope of collaboration between users and providers in the process of agent development and to define the impact that user interpretations of a BVA agent have on this collaboration. This study conceptualises the collaboration between providers and users in the process of the BVA development. It uses the concept of the collaborative development of innovation and sensemaking. The empirical part presents preliminary exploratory in-depth interviews conducted with CEOs of BVA providers and analyses the use of the scheme offered by <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="j_emj-2019-0018_ref_021_w2aab3b7b2b1b6b1ab1c10c21Aa">Miles and Hubermann (1994)</xref>. The main results show the scope of the collaboration between BVA users and providers in the process of the BVA development. User engagement is crucial in the development of BVA agents since they are using machine learning algorithms. The user interpretation through sensemaking influences the process as their attitudes guide their behaviour. Apart from that, users have to adjust to this new kind of entity in the market and learn how to use it in line with savoir-vivre rules. This paper suggests the need to develop a new approach to the collaborative development of innovation when Artificial Intelligence is involved.</p></abstract>

This study focuses on the development of a specific type of Intelligent Agents — Business Virtual Assistants (BVA). The paper aims to identify the scope of collaboration between users and providers in the process of agent development and to define the impact that user interpretations of a BVA agent have on this collaboration. This study conceptualises the collaboration between providers and users in the process of the BVA development. It uses the concept of the collaborative development of innovation and sensemaking. The empirical part presents preliminary exploratory in-depth interviews conducted with CEOs of BVA providers and analyses the use of the scheme offered by Miles and Hubermann (1994). The main results show the scope of the collaboration between BVA users and providers in the process of the BVA development. User engagement is crucial in the development of BVA agents since they are using machine learning algorithms. The user interpretation through sensemaking influences the process as their attitudes guide their behaviour. Apart from that, users have to adjust to this new kind of entity in the market and learn how to use it in line with savoir-vivre rules. This paper suggests the need to develop a new approach to the collaborative development of innovation when Artificial Intelligence is involved.

Development of intelligent agents through collaborative innovation

Poznań University of Economics and Business

Engineering Management in Production and Services

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

{"article-title":"Development of intelligent agents through collaborative innovation"}

This study focuses on the development of a specific type of Intelligent Agents — Business Virtual Assistants (BVA). The paper aims to identify the scope of...

Type of actor	Definition
Provider	A Provider is the main developer responsible for the creation of a BVA. The Provider sells the agent to the Host
Host	The Host buys the agent from the Provider. Its employees use it to schedule meetings with other actors inside and outside of their organisation. The BVA learns the habits of the employees and has access to their calendars
Guest	Its employees engage in the interaction with the BVA to schedule a meeting with the Host’s employees. They are facing a fait accompli

Project name	Based in	Virtual assistant image
Calendar.help (Cortana)	Redmond	Artificial
Clara	San Francisco	Humanoid
Evie	Singapore	Humanoid
Julie Desk	Paris	Humanoid
Konolabs	Seoul	Artificial
Meet Sally	New York	Humanoid
X.ai	New York	Humanoid
Zazu	Amsterdam	Humanoid

Development of intelligent agents through collaborative innovation

Published Online: Nov 19, 2019

Page range: 29 - 37

Received: Apr 30, 2019

Accepted: Sep 15, 2019

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/emj-2019-0018

Keywords
Business Virtual Assistants, artificial intelligence, innovation development

© 2019 Mateusz Kot et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Types of actors involved in the Collaborative Development of Innovation in the case of a BVA

Virtual Assistants worldwide

Development of intelligent agents through collaborative innovation

Published Online: Nov 19, 2019

Page range: 29 - 37

Received: Apr 30, 2019

Accepted: Sep 15, 2019

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/emj-2019-0018

KeywordsBusiness Virtual Assistants, artificial intelligence, innovation development

© 2019 Mateusz Kot et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Types of actors involved in the Collaborative Development of Innovation in the case of a BVA

Virtual Assistants worldwide

Keywords
Business Virtual Assistants, artificial intelligence, innovation development