AI in the Workplace: The Current State of Research in the Social Sciences

Abstract

An increasing number of organizations are implementing artificial intelligence (AI) technologies into various business processes, and the number of publications addressing aspects of AI’s application in the workplace is growing rapidly. Given the uncertainty surrounding the effects of AI implementation on the labor market, the time lag associated with its integration, and the novelty and high relevance of the technology, there is a need for a systematic analysis of existing research on this topic. This study uses bibliometric analysis to describe the current state of the research field on AI in the workplace within the social sciences (n = 1,344), based on the Web of Science (WoS) database. According to the results, interest in this topic began to grow in 2017, and the phase of active growth in publication activity began in 2022, coinciding with the emergence of ChatGPT. The analysis identified two intellectual schools — economic and managerial — that examine AI in the labor sphere at the macro- and micro-levels. The conceptual structure of the field includes research at the technological, organizational, and social levels. The study has a number of methodological limitations, a significant portion of which are related to the use of the WoS database. The findings are valuable both for novice researchers and for experts already working in this field, as they provide a comprehensive and general overview of the current state of this emerging and evolving field of research.  

For citation: Talakauskas, D. (2026) AI in the Workplace: The Current State of Research in the Social Sciences. Russia’s Directions. Vol. 4. No. 3. P. 44–67.

Additional Info

Submitted: June 2, 2026

Reviewed: June 16, 2026

Copyright: © Auhtors, 2026

Distribution: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)