This is a shortened reproduction of the article “Augmented intelligence: How explainable AI is changing manufacturing jobs for the better,” coauthored with Julian Senoner and Stefan Feuerriegel, recently published in the World Economic Forum’s Agenda.

A common narrative suggests AI is poised to replace human work on a large scale. Our research in diverse manufacturing settings and a recent World Economic Forum report on AI in manufacturing reject that vision. Instead, AI holds the potential to augment human intelligence to solve work tasks more effectively while also enriching the work experience. The key to unlocking this potential lies in explainable algorithms, which contrast the often-opaque decision-making processes in conventional AI systems.