Phygitar - Envisioning the Rhythmic Phygital Ecosystem in 2050

This paper takes us to a possible future world called Phygitar - a rhythmic phygital ecosystem in 2050 where the co-existence of people, technology, and nature flow in rhythmic synthesis, and where digital and physical are seamlessly fused. Using the approaches of futures-studies, this envisioning is done to better understand concepts from 2050 and see how we can engage with and use those effectively in 2023 for IS theory development and management practice. We use the 2009 movie “Avatar” by James Cameron as the playground of our imagination. We apply illustrative elements to depict some key characteristics and concepts from of this rhythmic phygital ecosystem and show some ways of navigating through it. We hope this will trigger the imagination of scholars of what might be out there in the next generation of post-digital IS theories rather than being rooted in the mindset of what is or what has been

Artificial Intelligence Meets IS Researchers: Can It Replace Us?

Given we live in an era with accelerating digitization and rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI), AI may eventually automate more job tasks. However, researchers have scarcely if at all critically analyzed how AI will automate such tasks and what professions it will automate more than others. Some studies suggest that AI cannot conduct highly creative and knowledge-intensive tasks. Yet, AI algorithms have generated creative art pieces that even art critics could not distinguish from human-drawn paintings. As IS (and most other) researchers, we pride ourselves on our work’s scarcity, novelty, and creativity. In this context, we report on a panel at the 40th International Conference for Information Systems that debated whether AI can and will replace our major activity, IS research, or even IS researchers themselves