The Cognition Cube: A Framework for Organizing AI Systems Research

The past few years have witnessed a rapid evolution in artificial intelligence (AI), marking the advent of a new cognitive era. Concurrently, academic interest in the organizational adoption and impacts of AI has surged, reflected in a diverse array of research across management disciplines. This chapter presents the Cognition Cube, a theoretical framework designed to synthesize emerging thematic trends in literature concerning AI’s firm-level impacts. Organized into temporal evaluations, foundational definitions of intelligent, agentic, and cognitive systems, and exemplar studies within the cube’s dimensions of AI, Human, and Task, this framework categorizes existing research and guides future inquiries. Highlighting areas such as cognitive reapportionment, GREAT economies, and innovation, the chapter aims to stimulate further research, anticipating significant growth in the study of AI’s organizational implications as we advance into the cognitive age.