Universität zu Köln

Wu-Gehbauer, Mei ORCID: 0009-0006-3352-6553 (2026). Information Systems Development in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. PhD thesis, Universität zu Köln.

PDF Dissertation_Final_PUB.pdf Download (2MB)

Abstract

Information systems (IS) in organizations increasingly embed artificial intelligence, which exhibits agentic characteristics as it perceives its environment, responds, and adapts its behavior. While a substantial IS literature examines how work is accomplished with artificial intelligence (AI), the implications of AI for information systems development (ISD) remain underexplored. Yet, AI raises more than technological challenges in ISD: It has broader implications for the humans involved and the development activities undertaken to create a working IS comprising people, processes, and technology. Thus, the overarching inquiry of this dissertation is: How does artificial intelligence reshape information systems development in organizations? To address this inquiry, this cumulative dissertation provides a comprehensive account of how AI reshapes ISD by examining two perspectives in which AI enters ISD. First, it examines AI as an ISD output in the form of agentic AI-based systems, foregrounding the implications of agentic system characteristics for development practices and for the humans involved. Second, it examines AI as a technology that augments developers’ work within ISD processes, focusing on its implications for ISD outcomes and for the developers’ jobs. The dissertation offers novel theoretical and empirical insights into ISD in the age of AI. For the development of AI-based systems, it shows that ISD must move beyond the traditional user-developer dyad towards a triadic view that treats the AI-based system as an agent in the development process. The dissertation theorizes how development work in the triad bridges knowledge-related boundaries, iteratively aligns AI-based systems for collaborative human-AI problem-solving, and involves developers entering a delegation relationship with the AI-based system during development. These insights help organizations understand how development work must be orchestrated across developers, users, and the AI-based system. For AI-augmented ISD, the dissertation shows how generative AI reshapes ISD processes through additional development practices that enable developers to realize and shape generative AI-augmented ways of working. While generative AI use is positively associated with developers’ work engagement, no evidence was found for an association with broader, proactive changes to developers’ jobs. Overall, this dissertation provides a comprehensive understanding of how AI reshapes ISD across both the development of AI-based systems and AI-augmented ISD.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD thesis)
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code Wu-Gehbauer, Mei m.wu-gehbauer@wiso.uni-koeln.de https://orcid.org/0009-0006-3352-6553 UNSPECIFIED
URN:	urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-799697
Date:	2026
Language:	English
Faculty:	Faculty of Management, Economy and Social Sciences
Divisions:	Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences > Business Administration > Information Systems > Professorship for Integrated Information Systems
Subjects:	Data processing Computer science Management and auxiliary services
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Keywords Language Information systems development English Artificial intelligence English Generative artificial intelligence English Artificial intelligence-based systems English Development practices English Triadic perspective English AIaugmented information systems development English
Date of oral exam:	4 March 2026
Referee:	Name Academic Title Rosenkranz, Christoph Prof. Dr. Seidel, Stefan Prof. Dr.
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/79969