Overview
Background
Dr Tapani Rinta-Kahila is a Senior Lecturer of Business Information Systems and an ARC DECRA Fellow at The University of Queensland Business School. He holds a doctoral degree from Aalto University School of Business, where he wrote an award-winning dissertation on the decommissioning of organisational information systems.
His research focuses on issues around the implementation and management of artificial intelligence (AI) systems in organisations, unintended consequences of technology use, and replacement of organisational information systems (IS). In particular, Tapani strives to understand how contemporary technologies such as AI affect the way in which people learn, work and organise, and how the negative consequences of such technologies can be managed.
Tapani's research has appeared in leading IS journals, including MIS Quarterly, Journal of the Association for Information Systems, European Journal of Information Systems, Journal of Information Technology, Information & Management, and MIS Quarterly Executive, as well as in leading IS conferences, such as ICIS, ECIS, HICSS, and ACIS. His publication "Algorithmic decision-making and system destructiveness: A case of automatic debt recovery" in European Journal of Information Systems was awarded both the prestigious Stafford Beer Medal and the AIS Senior Scholar Best IS Publication Award in 2023. Moreover, his research achievements more generally have been recognised with the AIS Early Career Award, as well as awards for Early-Career Research Excellence from the UQ Business School and BEL Faculty. Further, his industry engagement with the software vendor SAP received the UQ Early-to-Mid-Career Researcher Industry Engagement Award and the UQ BEL Faculty Research Engagement and Impact Award.
Tapani serves as an Associate Editor for leading IS conferences (e.g. ICIS, ECIS, PACIS) as a Minitrack Chair for HICSS, and as a reviewer for the leading IS journals (MISQ, JAIS, EJIS, ISJ, JSIS, JIT, I&M, BISE, MISQ Executive, etc) and conferences (ICIS, ECIS, HICSS, PACIS, ACIS, WI etc).
Availability
- Dr Tapani Rinta-Kahila is:
- Available for supervision
- Media expert
Qualifications
- Doctor of Philosophy of Science (Advanced), Aalto University
Research interests
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Automation and Erosion of Expertise
Technologies like AI are becoming increasingly sophisticated, allowing the automation of many types of activities that were previously conducted exclusively by humans. What happens to our skills and abilities when we offload an increasing share of our cognitive functions to technology? What are the individual and organisational implications of becoming more and more dependent on AI? Is the erosion of skills inevitable, or can we find ways to consciously manage it?
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Organisational AI implementation: challenges and opportunities
AI technology promises significant benefits to organisations but reaping those benefits is far from simple. How can organisations implement AI responsibly while making most of the technology's benefits? How can they deal with issues related to accountability in algorithmic decision-making, the inscrutability of complex AI models, and potential biases stemming from data and algorithms?
Research impacts
Tapani's research has informed the professional practice of several industry partners. For instance, his collaboration with the SAP Institute for Digital Government has resulted in four thought-leadership reports co-authored with SAP practitioners. These reports outline approaches to responsible AI implementation in the public sector, and they have been distributed widely in the global SAP organisation and translated into several languages. Further, Tapani has conducted societally important research on the Australian welfare debt recollection scandal known as Robodebt, and his published articles on the topic have garnered attention from the media (ABC Radio, SBS News, Reuters). Through his work, Tapani strives to contribute to creating a more informed and responsible culture around the use and implementation of cutting-edge AI technologies.
Featured articles:
What happens when we outsource boring but important work to AI?
How to avoid algorithmic decision-making mistakes: lessons from the Robodebt debacle
Works
Search Professor Tapani Rinta-Kahila’s works on UQ eSpace
2021
Journal Article
Four flavours of customers: a dual-system perspective on self-service technology use
Rinta-Kahila, Tapani and Penttinen, Esko (2021). Four flavours of customers: a dual-system perspective on self-service technology use. Australasian Journal of Information Systems, 25, 1-27. doi: 10.3127/ajis.v25i0.2671
2021
Other Outputs
Building explainability into public sector artificial intelligence: helping stakeholders understand the thinking behind AI decision-making
Rinta-Kahila, Tapani, Someh, Ida, Indulska, Marta, Ryan, Ian and van Leent, Ryan (2021). Building explainability into public sector artificial intelligence: helping stakeholders understand the thinking behind AI decision-making. SAP Thought Leadership Paper: Public Sector Brisbane, Australia: The University of Queensland; SAP SE.
2020
Journal Article
Challenges of explaining the behavior of black-box AI systems
Asatiani, Aleksandre, Malo, Pekka, Nagb, Per Radberg, Penttinen, Esko, Rinta-Kahila, Tapani and Salovaara, Antti (2020). Challenges of explaining the behavior of black-box AI systems. MIS Quarterly Executive, 19 (4), 259-278. doi: 10.17705/2msqe.00037
2020
Other Outputs
Delivering AI programs in the public sector: guidelines for government leaders
Rinta-Kahila, Tapani, Someh, Ida, Gillespie, Nicole, Indulska, Marta, Gregor, Shirley , Van Leent, Ryan and Ryan, Ian (2020). Delivering AI programs in the public sector: guidelines for government leaders. Brisbane, Australia: The University of Queensland and SAP SE.
2020
Conference Publication
How to enforce presenteeism with ICT while mitigating technostress – a case study
Luoma, Roni, Penttinen, Esko and Rinta-Kahila, Tapani (2020). How to enforce presenteeism with ICT while mitigating technostress – a case study. Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences , Maui, HI, United States, 7-10 January 2020. Maui, HI, United States: Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. doi: 10.24251/hicss.2020.749
2019
Journal Article
Toward a refined conceptualization of IS discontinuance: reflection on the past and a way forward
Soliman, Wael and Rinta-Kahila, Tapani (2019). Toward a refined conceptualization of IS discontinuance: reflection on the past and a way forward. Information and Management, 57 (2) 103167, 103167. doi: 10.1016/j.im.2019.05.002
2019
Conference Publication
Why is your crowd abandoning you? Exploring crowdsourcing discontinuance through the lens of motivation theory
Soliman, Wael, Rinta-Kahila, Tapani and Kaikkonen, Joona (2019). Why is your crowd abandoning you? Exploring crowdsourcing discontinuance through the lens of motivation theory. Australasian Conference on Information Systems, Perth, WA, Australia, 8-11 December 2019. New York, United States: Association for Information Systems.
2019
Conference Publication
Implementation of automation as distributed cognition in knowledge work organizations: six recommendations for managers
Asatiani, Aleksandre, Penttinen, Esko, Rinta-Kahila, Tapani and Salovaara, Antti (2019). Implementation of automation as distributed cognition in knowledge work organizations: six recommendations for managers. 40th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS 2019), Munich, Germany, 15-18 December 2019. Atlanta, GA USA: Association for Information Systems.
2018
Conference Publication
Consequences of discontinuing knowledge work automation - surfacing of deskilling effects and methods of recovery
Rinta-Kahila, Tapani, Penttinen, Esko, Salovaara, Antti and Soliman, Wael (2018). Consequences of discontinuing knowledge work automation - surfacing of deskilling effects and methods of recovery. 51st Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS 2018), Waikoloa Village, Big Island, HI, United States, 2-6 January 2018. Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. doi: 10.24251/hicss.2018.654
2018
Conference Publication
Unethical but not illegal: uncovering the persuasive messages leveraged by providers of the “real” online social impressions
Soliman, Wael and Rinta-Kahila, Tapani (2018). Unethical but not illegal: uncovering the persuasive messages leveraged by providers of the “real” online social impressions. 26th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS 2018), Portsmouth, United Kingdom, 23-28 June 2018. Association for Information Systems.
2018
Conference Publication
Caught in between: how an organization became a prisoner of its legacy system after is change
Rinta-Kahila, Tapani (2018). Caught in between: how an organization became a prisoner of its legacy system after is change. 39th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS 2018), San Francisco, CA United States, 13-16 December 2018. Atlanta, GA United States: Association for Information Systems.
2018
Conference Publication
How to check out?: an empirical exploration of customers’ different cognitive processes in retailing context
Rinta-Kahila, Tapani, Penttinen, Esko and Pääsky, Hans-Petteri (2018). How to check out?: an empirical exploration of customers’ different cognitive processes in retailing context. 51st Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS 2018), Waikoloa Village, Big Island, HI, United States, 2-6 January 2018. Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. doi: 10.24251/hicss.2018.487
2017
Journal Article
Onboarding customer companies to electronic invoicing platform - developing a marketing and a partnering strategy for Tieto, an e-invoicing service provider
Penttinen, Esko and Rinta-Kahila, Tapani (2017). Onboarding customer companies to electronic invoicing platform - developing a marketing and a partnering strategy for Tieto, an e-invoicing service provider. Journal of Information Technology Teaching Cases, 7 (1), 43-50. doi: 10.1057/s41266-016-0015-x
2017
Conference Publication
Understanding crowdturfing: the different ethical logics behind the clandestine industry of deception
Rinta-Kahila, Tapani and Soliman, Wael (2017). Understanding crowdturfing: the different ethical logics behind the clandestine industry of deception. 25th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS 2017), Guimaraes, Portugal, 5-10 June 2017. Association for Information Systems.
2016
Conference Publication
Unfolding the types of organizational inertia in information systems adoption
Rinta-Kahila, Tapani, Penttinen, Esko and Nevalainen, Anssi (2016). Unfolding the types of organizational inertia in information systems adoption. 49th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS 2016), Koloa, Kauai, HI, United States, 5-8 January 2016. Los Alamitos, CA, United States: IEEE Computer Society. doi: 10.1109/hicss.2016.486
2014
Conference Publication
Triggering intention to use to actual use - empirical evidence from self-service checkout (SCO) systems
Penttinen, Esko, Kahila, Tapani-Rinta, Ronkko, Mikko and Saarinen, Timo (2014). Triggering intention to use to actual use - empirical evidence from self-service checkout (SCO) systems. 47th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS 2014), Waikoloa, HI, United States, 06-09 January 2014. Washington, DC, United States: IEEE Computer Society. doi: 10.1109/hicss.2014.414
Supervision
Availability
- Dr Tapani Rinta-Kahila is:
- Available for supervision
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Supervision history
Current supervision
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Doctor Philosophy
Synergy between Human Resource Skills and Artificial Intelligence
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Stan Karanasios
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Doctor Philosophy
HOW AI SERVICE AGENTS INFLUENCE ENGAGEMENT IN LIVE STREAMING: PERSPECTIVE OF IT AFFORDANCE & ANTHROPOMORPHISM
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Christoph Breidbach
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Doctor Philosophy
Developing Data-Driven Organisations
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Marta Indulska, Associate Professor Ida Asadi Someh
Media
Enquiries
Contact Dr Tapani Rinta-Kahila directly for media enquiries about:
- artificial intelligence
- case study
- information systems
- IT system replacement
- qualitative research
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