The influence of AI tools on decision-making processes

: a study of cognitive automation

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a developing technology that is increasingly being used to facilitate and optimize decision-making. This thesis therefore examines the influence of AI on human decision-making processes. The main focus lies on the question of whether the availability of AI leads to more intuitive decision making. The study shows that people tend to give more intuitive answers when AI is used as a decision making aid. This is even the case when AI makes incorrect recommendations. Furthermore, AI recommendations are more likely to lead to intuitive responses than human recommendations, indicating greater confidence in AI's reliability. This work also investigated the role of motivation to engage in deep thinking and trust in AI as mediating and moderating factors in this process, respectively. Furthermore, the availability of AI did not reduce the motivation and trust in AI had no moderating effect on the relationship between usage of AI and decision making style. These findings contribute to the debate on the impact of AI on decision-making. AI has the potential to improve the efficiency of decision-making, but there exists the risk to rely on intuition rather than to rationally scrutinize the outcomes generated by AI. Therefore, a balanced integration of AI is required that avoids over-reliance and promotes AI's capabilities to improve decision making.

Date of Award	3 Jul 2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Filipa de Almeida (Supervisor)