Reimagining work in the age of intelligent automation: a qualitative inquiry into AI-augmented workforce dynamics and managerial redesign

Purpose This paper aims to examine how artificial intelligence (AI) reshapes contemporary work by augmenting, rather than substituting, human roles, engaging explicitly with substitution, augmentation and co-evolutionary perspectives on AI and the future of work. It introduces the concept of augmented work agency to refine sociotechnical debates on agency, control and coordination in AI-mediated settings and investigates how AI integration transforms managerial practices, workforce identities and organizational coordination, within evolving infrastructures that combine predictive and generative AI. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative interpretivist research design was used, drawing on semistructured interviews with 28 managers and professionals from 12 organizations across technology, finance and knowledge-intensive service sectors in Europe and Asia. Using thematic and interpretive analysis, supported by organizational document review, the study identifies patterns of adaptation in organizations implementing AI at strategic and operational levels, paying particular attention to experiences of technostress, anxiety and the micro-political negotiation of AI tools in everyday work. Findings This study develops an emergent framework of AI–human co-adaptation, illustrating how cognitive, relational and structural changes accompany AI integration across three interrelated dimensions: technological alignment, cognitive calibration and ethical anchoring. It uncovers three central tensions − autonomy versus orchestration, capability versus dependency and experimentation versus ethics − that collectively shape the evolving dynamics of AI-mediated work and condition how organizations navigate competing priorities while fostering productive human–AI collaboration, and how employees experience and contest AI integration through forms of individual and collective agency. Originality/value This paper advances understanding of augmented workforce design by introducing the concept of augmented work agency as a multi-level, interpretive form of human agency in algorithmically mediated environments, extending sociotechnical systems, algorithmic management and institutional-logics perspectives on agency, control and coordination. It conceptualizes AI as a co-evolving organizational capability rather than a deterministic technology and shows how augmented work agency is shaped by generative and non-generative AI applications, employees’ experiences of anxiety and technostress and the micro-politics through which teams and employee groups negotiate the boundaries of AI use and AI ethics. The study offers actionable insights for leaders seeking to balance innovation, capability development and ethical governance in AI-enabled workplaces while sustaining human interpretive authority, accountability and responsibility over time.