Abstract
This article investigates the introduction of AI in a patent law firm. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 42 patent attorneys and specialist professional staff in the firm, we examine how patent attorneys perceived AI and responded through identity work. While extant literature suggests that professionals' appropriate technologies in ways that an old identity (who they were) is revised through identity work (who they could be), with technology as a core identity marker, our findings present an alternative picture. We identified three interrelated identity dimensions (individual, organization, and profession) that shaped how patent attorneys responded during the implementation of a new AI tool by: contesting the changing perceptions of autonomy, compromising in the effort to integrate AI with existing processes and practices, and connecting with clients in novel ways as they reshaped established ways of thinking and working. Our analysis highlights how the specific characteristics of AI (automation and/or augmentation) generated a fragmented professional identity instead of evolving into a revised, collective identity. This article contributes to the literature on IS and identity by highlighting the complex and fragmented nature of identity change in the face of AI implementation. The study is unique, as it captures the transitional moment when a groundbreaking technology is first implemented in a professional service firm.
•Professional service firms increasingly implement Artificial Intelligence (AI).•AI changes established work practices and skill requirements among professionals.•It also challenges their professional identity, leading to increased identity work.•We identify three identity work strategies: Contesting, Compromising, Connecting.•Oscillating between these strategies leads to professional identity fragmentation.