Get to know: Jinglu Jiang SOM researcher explores cutting edge topics in MIS By Tykeem Banini
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mazon’s Alexa knows you well — but how well do you know her? Jinglu Jiang, assistant professor in the School of Management, explores this question and more through her work in the field of management information systems (MIS). With a deep passion for research, Jiang investigates the relationship between humans and intelligent agents to understand how technology impacts people on an individual level as well as within a team. Intelligent agents are artificial intelligence (AI) entities, such as Alexa and Siri, that perform a service autonomously and augment human decisions based on inputs and data from their environment. “When I do this research, my aim is to discover the mechanism behind it,” she says. “What are the motivational factors that contribute to whatever someone’s behavior is online?”
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REACHING HIGHER
It’s no secret that technology influences human behaviors, and that intelligent agents may learn from people’s behaviors and adapt to the situation — but what exactly happens during this exchange? By drawing on theories from fields such as sociology and psychology, Jiang conducts research to understand human-agent interactions in various contexts such as digital healthcare and team-based decision-making. That’s how she gains a further understanding of how, for example, people interact with their Fitbit or why patients may rely on Siri to create reminders on their iPhone. “My primary goal is to create or expand my own theory for human-agent interaction,” Jiang says. Jiang’s recent contribution to the field of MIS has been a theoretical one published in MIS Quarterly. She and her colleagues proposed a theoretical framework that explains how IT can facilitate various stages and elements of self-management of
