Bas Becker is Assistant Professor of Organization Sciences and the Talma Institute at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. His research explores the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI), decision-making and the quantification of organizations, organizing and work.
Looking beyond the hype and fear surrounding AI and data, his research considers what happens when technology meets everyday practice. As an organizational ethnographer, he examines how professionals interpret, adopt, contest and adapt algorithms and metrics, and how this reshapes work, including expertise, collaboration, accountability and authority. His research mainly focusses on the healthcare field, but the questions extend to any organization where consequential decisions are made in interaction with technology.
Bas’s research and teaching show that technology does not transform organizations independently. Its effects depend on the people, routines and logics it encounters. Numbers and predictions are never neutral; they shape, are shaped by, what counts as good work. Using a sociotechnical approach, Bas aims to help organizations, technology designers and policymakers develop and introduce technologies that are more responsive to the practices, values and ethical commitments of the people they serve.
