From Tools to Social Actors: How Conversational AI Is Reshaping Work

As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes embedded in everyday organizational life, it is no longer just a productivity tool—it is increasingly a social actor. From AI coaches and wellbeing chatbots to meeting assistants, conversational AI now participates in interactions once reserved for humans, reshaping who people talk to, what they disclose, and how social dynamics unfold at work. While organizational research has largely focused on AI’s performance benefits, far less is known about what happens when AI becomes a conversational partner. This symposium tackles that gap by examining how people interact with AI and the intrapersonal, interpersonal, and collective consequences that follow. Featuring five papers across diverse organizational contexts, the symposium explores AI-facilitated group decision making, bias amplification and mitigation, chatbot-based training for difficult conversations, human–AI working alliances, and emotional disclosure to AI versus humans. Together, the papers study AI as a social actor and unpack how it reshapes learning, collaboration, and well-being at work.