Abstract
This developmental paper reports a work-in-progress study that explores doctors’ perception of the influence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on their professional identity and practices through an identity work lens. Through an inductive qualitative study, we conducted 14 semi-structured interviews with doctors who deal with AI in their medical practices and analysed the data with grounded theory approaches. This paper aims to contribute to identity work and AI literature by understanding how AI, as a unique, ‘quasi-social’ agent, can interact with doctors and induce their identity work. Preliminary results show that doctors experience AI more as an identity enhancement than a threat. This is likely due to their strong professional identity and the identity work strategies whereby AI is perceived as a tool rather than an agentic entity. Furthermore, our findings indicate that AI perception can change over time thanks to individuals’ continuous learning and growth. This indicates that the ongoing process of identity work can trigger profound changes in professionals, in this case towards accepting AI implementation in medical practices.