ideation.zone

Andreas Schmuck

Conversations on ideas and artificial intelligence – what AI does to our thinking, our time and the organizations we work in. In each episode a host and two experts, one from research and one from practice, take a topic from the essays on ideation.zone and look at it from more than one side: a thesis, an antithesis, and a synthesis that does not pretend the disagreement away. Seasons Season 1 – Time & AI: speed, desynchronisation, availability and the future, based on Hartmut Rosa's theory of social acceleration.Season 2 – Ideation & AI: creativity, judgement and who owns an idea made with a machine.Season 3 – Organizations & AI: hierarchy, decisions, rule-breaking, control and where tomorrow's experts will come from.All essays with their sources are free to read at https://ideation.zone AI-generated voices, fictional speakers. The scripts are researched and written with AI and reviewed before publication.

  1. 2d ago

    Who holds the stopwatch?

    Season 3, episode 4 – the season finale. Every technology of coordination is also a technology of control. An organization theorist and a chief operating officer on algorithmic management as the new contested terrain, Weber's bureaucracy on autopilot, professions that lose and regain their territory – and where tomorrow's experts will come from if AI does the work beginners learned from. Chapters00:00 Cold open00:17 Control01:12 The new contested terrain06:33 Weber's bureaucracy, automated11:22 Jurisdiction lost and found14:36 Where will the experts come from? Elisabeth talks with Niels, an organization theorist in Copenhagen, and Claire, chief operating officer of a logistics company in Lyon. Claire's confession about a productivity dashboard she almost bought, and why France fined a warehouse operator 32 million euros for counting idle seconds. What a Danish municipality's plan to score families and the Dutch childcare benefits scandal teach about discretion inside the software. Abbott's three acts of professional work, two New York lawyers and a chatbot, and why the scarce skill becomes vouching. And Lisanne Bainbridge's irony of automation: the better the machine, the less practice the humans get for the day it fails. The guests try answers to three of the essays' open questions – and look back on the season. Season 3 – Organizations & AI. The conversations start from the fifteen essays on ideation.zone that test classic organization theory – Weber, Galbraith, Mintzberg, Coase, Luhmann, March, Weick and others – against current research on what generative AI does to organizations: hierarchy and coordination, decisions and responsibility, formal rules and informal practice, control, professions, and where tomorrow's experts will come from. The guests are an organization theorist and a chief operating officer who is rebuilding a company around AI. Essays in this episode (Organizations & AI → Control, domination, professions) The new contested terrainWeber's bureaucracy, automatedJurisdiction lost and foundWhere will the experts come from?Mentioned in this episode Kellogg, Valentine & Christin (2020): Algorithms at work – the new contested terrain of controlMilanez, Lemmens & Ruggiu (2025): Algorithmic management in the workplace – OECD employer surveyCNIL (January 2024): Amazon France Logistique fined €32 million for excessive employee monitoringDirective (EU) 2024/2831 on improving working conditions in platform workBovens & Zouridis (2002): From street-level to system-level bureaucraciesMeijer, Lorenz & Wessels (2021): The algocracy as a new ideal type for government organizationsAlgorithmWatch (2020): Automating Society – Denmark and the Gladsaxe modelAmnesty International (2021): Xenophobic machines – the Dutch childcare benefits scandalFaulconbridge, Sarwar & Spring (2025): How professionals adapt to artificial intelligenceMata v. Avianca (S.D.N.Y., June 2023): sanctions for citations invented by ChatGPTLisanne Bainbridge (1983): Ironies of automationMatt Beane (2019): Shadow learning – building robotic surgical skill when approved means failBrynjolfsson, Li & Raymond (2025): Generative AI at workJames March (1991): Exploration and exploitation in organizational learningSpeakers: Elisabeth (Host), Niels (organization theorist), Claire (COO). AI-generated voices, fictional speakers; script researched and written with AI. Transcript and all sources

    Who holds the stopwatch?

  2. 2d ago

    The AI nobody is allowed to use

    Season 3, episode 3. Every organization has three sides: the formal rules, the informal practice, and the face it shows the world. An organization theorist and a chief operating officer on shadow AI as useful rule-breaking, 'AI-first' as a rational myth, and what happens to sensemaking when the first voice in the room is always a fluent machine. Chapters00:00 Cold open00:15 Welcome01:00 Shadow AI as useful illegality05:45 "AI-first" as a rational myth10:16 Sensemaking with a machine that always answers Elisabeth talks with Niels, an organization theorist in Copenhagen, and Claire, chief operating officer of a logistics company in Lyon. Why Luhmann said in 1964 that organizations depend on rules being broken in the right way – and why Claire's dispatchers translate messages for drivers on their own phones. Why every company has an AI strategy and what regulators now do about 'AI washing'. And what a forest fire in Montana in 1949 teaches about sensemaking with a machine that always has an answer. The guests try answers to three of the essays' open questions. Season 3 – Organizations & AI. The conversations start from the fifteen essays on ideation.zone that test classic organization theory – Weber, Galbraith, Mintzberg, Coase, Luhmann, March, Weick and others – against current research on what generative AI does to organizations: hierarchy and coordination, decisions and responsibility, formal rules and informal practice, control, professions, and where tomorrow's experts will come from. The guests are an organization theorist and a chief operating officer who is rebuilding a company around AI. Essays in this episode (Organizations & AI → The three sides of organization) Shadow AI as useful illegality"AI-first" as a rational mythSensemaking with a machine that always answersMentioned in this episode Niklas Luhmann (1964): Funktionen und Folgen formaler Organisation – useful illegalityMicrosoft & LinkedIn (2024): Work Trend Index – 'bring your own AI'PagerDuty (2026): shadow AI workplace surveyMatt Beane: shadow learning (EurekAlert summary)Meyer & Rowan (1977): Institutionalized organizations – formal structure as myth and ceremonyDiMaggio & Powell (1983): The iron cage revisited – institutional isomorphismUS SEC (March 2024): first enforcement actions against 'AI washing' by two investment advisersWeick, Sutcliffe & Obstfeld (2005): Organizing and the process of sensemakingKarl Weick (1993): The collapse of sensemaking in organizations – the Mann Gulch disasterDell'Acqua et al. (2023): Navigating the jagged technological frontierSpeakers: Elisabeth (Host), Niels (organization theorist), Claire (COO). AI-generated voices, fictional speakers; script researched and written with AI. Transcript and all sources

    The AI nobody is allowed to use

  3. 2d ago

    Who signs?

    Season 3, episode 2. AI doesn't take the decision – it quietly rewrites what the decision rests on. An organization theorist and a chief operating officer on Luhmann's decision premises, the human in the crumple zone who absorbs the blame, and whether an AI agent can ever be a member of an organization. Chapters00:00 Cold open00:17 Welcome01:14 Decision premises, rewritten05:27 The human in the crumple zone10:38 Can an agent be a member? Elisabeth talks with Niels, an organization theorist in Copenhagen, and Claire, chief operating officer of a logistics company in Lyon. What a vendor's silent software update did to Claire's routing rules. Why the person who signs off an AI recommendation receives the conclusion but not the evidence. What a self-driving car in Arizona and a 1958 book by March and Simon have in common. And why an agent can do the work but cannot join. The guests try answers to three of the essays' open questions. Season 3 – Organizations & AI. The conversations start from the fifteen essays on ideation.zone that test classic organization theory – Weber, Galbraith, Mintzberg, Coase, Luhmann, March, Weick and others – against current research on what generative AI does to organizations: hierarchy and coordination, decisions and responsibility, formal rules and informal practice, control, professions, and where tomorrow's experts will come from. The guests are an organization theorist and a chief operating officer who is rebuilding a company around AI. Essays in this episode (Organizations & AI → Decision) Decision premises, rewrittenThe human in the crumple zoneCan an agent be a member?Mentioned in this episode Niklas Luhmann (2000): Organisation und Entscheidung – decision premisesStefan Kühl (2013): Organizations – A Systems ApproachKumar & Suthar (2026), Information Technology & People: AI and programmes as decision premisesJenna Burrell (2016), Big Data & Society: How the machine 'thinks' – three forms of opacityMarch & Simon (1958): Organizations – uncertainty absorptionMadeleine Clare Elish (2019): Moral crumple zones – cautionary tales in human-robot interactionUber self-driving test car crash in Tempe, Arizona (2018) and the safety driver's prosecutionBen Green (2022), Computer Law & Security Review: The flaws of policies requiring human oversight of government algorithmsLisanne Bainbridge (1983): Ironies of AutomationHadfield & Koh: An economy of AI agentsDell'Acqua et al. (2026), Organization Science: The Cybernetic TeammateSpeakers: Elisabeth (Host), Niels (organization theorist), Claire (COO). AI-generated voices, fictional speakers; script researched and written with AI. Transcript and all sources

    Who signs?

  4. 2d ago

    The org chart in the drawer

    Season 3, episode 1. If the hierarchy was an information system, what happens when information becomes cheap? An organization theorist and a chief operating officer on flattening as a cover story, who coordinates now, the firm of one – and why factories gained little from electricity until they were rebuilt. Chapters00:00 Cold open00:14 Welcome01:42 The hierarchy was an information system05:20 Flattening as a cover story09:08 Who coordinates now?12:17 The firm of one?14:56 Bolting AI onto the old org chart Elisabeth talks with Niels, an organization theorist in Copenhagen, and Claire, chief operating officer of a logistics company in Lyon who started as a dispatcher. Why Galbraith explained hierarchy as an information system fifty years ago – and what that means now. Why most companies that say AI made them flatter had other reasons. Mintzberg's five ways to coordinate and whether AI is a sixth. Coase's question why firms exist at all. And Paul David's electric dynamo: why technology only pays when the organization is rebuilt around it. The guests try answers to three of the essays' open questions. Season 3 – Organizations & AI. The conversations start from the fifteen essays on ideation.zone that test classic organization theory – Weber, Galbraith, Mintzberg, Coase, Luhmann, March, Weick and others – against current research on what generative AI does to organizations: hierarchy and coordination, decisions and responsibility, formal rules and informal practice, control, professions, and where tomorrow's experts will come from. The guests are an organization theorist and a chief operating officer who is rebuilding a company around AI. Essays in this episode (Organizations & AI → Structure & coordination) The hierarchy was an information systemFlattening as a cover storyWho coordinates now?The firm of one?Bolting AI onto the old org chartMentioned in this episode Jay Galbraith (1974): Organization design – an information processing viewLuis Garicano (2000): Hierarchies and the organization of knowledge in productionBloom, Garicano, Sadun & Van Reenen (2014): The distinct effects of information technology and communication technology on firm organizationHoffmann, Nagle et al. (2025): Generative AI and the nature of work – the GitHub Copilot natural experimentEric Abrahamson (1996): Management fashionMeyer & Rowan (1977): Institutionalized organizations – formal structure as myth and ceremonyRajan & Wulf (2006): The flattening firmNBER Digest (2026): Global evidence on business use of AI – survey of almost 6,000 executivesHenry Mintzberg (1979/1983): The Structuring of Organizations / Structure in FivesBrynjolfsson, Li & Raymond (2025): Generative AI at work – customer supportRonald Coase (1937): The Nature of the FirmHadfield & Koh: An economy of AI agentsBabina et al. (2024), Journal of Financial Economics: Artificial intelligence, firm growth, and product innovationPaul David (1990): The dynamo and the computerBrynjolfsson, Rock & Syverson (2021): The productivity J-curveMIT NANDA (2025): The GenAI DivideSpeakers: Elisabeth (Host), Niels (organization theorist), Claire (COO). AI-generated voices, fictional speakers; script researched and written with AI. Transcript and all sources

    The org chart in the drawer

  5. 2d ago

    The machine that always agrees

    Season 2, episode 4 – the finale. What does AI do to thinking itself? A creativity researcher and a designer on cognitive offloading and critical thinking, a machine trained to please, and models that pull ideas from every culture towards one default. With a look back at the season. Chapters00:00 Cold open00:17 Welcome01:12 Thinking less, trusting more05:27 The agreeable machine10:15 One model, many cultures?14:26 Looking back The season finale. Elisabeth, Yannis and Noa ask whether we think less when we trust the machine more – and why AI that gives hints instead of answers can make students better. Why a chatbot that loves your idea is the most dangerous adviser in an innovation process, and what the Catholic Church's devil's advocate has to do with it. And what happens to Austrian German, Indian English and an Andean work tradition when one model writes for everyone. The guests try answers to three of the exposés' open questions, look back at the season – and hand over to the next one. Season 2 – Ideation & AI. The conversations start from the thirteen exposés on ideation.zone, each built around one core study on what happens when people generate, select and judge ideas with artificial intelligence: from creativity tests and brainstorming experiments to AI co-scientists, design fixation, intellectual property and the risks for thinking and cultural diversity. The guests – a creativity researcher and a designer who runs ideation workshops – bring their own fields to it and test the studies against practice. Essays in this episode (Ideation & AI → Risks & critique) Thinking less, trusting moreThe agreeable machineOne model, many cultures?Mentioned in this episode Lee et al. (2025), CHI: The impact of generative AI on critical thinking – survey of 319 knowledge workersBastani et al. (2025), PNAS: Generative AI without guardrails can harm learningKestin et al. (2025), Scientific Reports: AI tutoring outperforms active learningSlamecka & Graf (1978): The generation effectRobert Bjork (1994): desirable difficultiesSparrow, Liu & Wegner (2011), Science: Google effects on memoryPlato, Phaedrus: the myth of Theuth – writing and memorySharma et al. (2024, ICLR): Towards understanding sycophancy in language modelsOpenAI (2025): Sycophancy in GPT-4o – what happened and what we're doing about itCostello, Pennycook & Rand (2024), Science: Durably reducing conspiracy beliefs through dialogues with AIIrving Janis (1972): Victims of GroupthinkDevil's advocate (advocatus diaboli) – the office in canonisation processes, reduced in 1983Agarwal, Naaman & Vashistha (2025, CHI): AI suggestions homogenize writing toward Western stylesAtari, Xue, Park, Blasi & Henrich (2023): Which humans? – LLMs and WEIRD psychologyTao, Viberg, Baker & Kizilcec (2024), PNAS Nexus: Cultural bias and cultural alignment of large language modelsProtocol No 10 to Austria's EU Act of Accession (1994): 23 Austrian German food termsMinga – Andean tradition of collective workSpeakers: Elisabeth (Host), Yannis (creativity researcher), Noa (designer). AI-generated voices, fictional speakers; script researched and written with AI. Transcript and all sources

    The machine that always agrees

  6. 2d ago

    Whose idea is it?

    Season 2, episode 3. Who owns an idea that a person developed with a machine – and whose ideas went into the machine in the first place? A creativity researcher and a designer on prompts and authorship, a monkey and a creativity machine, song lyrics the model learned by heart, and the line between learning and keeping. Chapters00:00 Cold open00:14 Welcome01:19 Who owns an idea co-created with AI?08:31 Trained on whose ideas? Elisabeth talks with Yannis, a creativity researcher in Zurich, and Noa, who runs a design studio in Barcelona – about the human threshold in copyright and patents, why a Chinese court and an American court decided almost the same case differently, what Noa's studio now writes into client contracts, and why the lyrics of a German song in a chatbot's answer became a landmark case. The guests try answers to two of the exposés' open questions. No legal advice – the decisions discussed are recent and partly under appeal. Season 2 – Ideation & AI. The conversations start from the thirteen exposés on ideation.zone, each built around one core study on what happens when people generate, select and judge ideas with artificial intelligence: from creativity tests and brainstorming experiments to AI co-scientists, design fixation, intellectual property and the risks for thinking and cultural diversity. The guests – a creativity researcher and a designer who runs ideation workshops – bring their own fields to it and test the studies against practice. Essays in this episode (Ideation & AI → Intellectual property) Who owns an idea co-created with AI?Trained on whose ideas?Mentioned in this episode Thaler v. Perlmutter, US Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (18 March 2025): human authorship requiredUS Copyright Office (January 2025): Copyright and Artificial Intelligence, Part 2 – CopyrightabilityUSPTO (November 2025): revised inventorship guidance for AI-assisted inventionsNaruto v. Slater – the monkey selfie case (US Court of Appeals, 9th Circuit, 2018)Beijing Internet Court (27 November 2023): Li v. Liu – AI-generated image protectedUK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, section 9(3): computer-generated worksSamsung restricts generative AI after internal code was pasted into ChatGPT (2023)Robert K. Merton (1968), Science: The Matthew effect in scienceArthur Koestler (1964): The Act of Creation – bisociationMunich Regional Court I (11 November 2025): GEMA v. OpenAI – memorised song lyricsHigh Court of England and Wales (November 2025): Getty Images v. Stability AIBartz v. Anthropic (2025): fair use for training on lawfully acquired books, settlement over pirated copiesKadrey v. Meta (June 2025): market dilution as possible harmKneschke v. LAION, Hamburg (2024): text and data mining for researchEU General-Purpose AI Code of Practice (July 2025): copyright chapterThe New York Times v. Microsoft and OpenAI (filed December 2023)Speakers: Elisabeth (Host), Yannis (creativity researcher), Noa (designer). AI-generated voices, fictional speakers; script researched and written with AI. Transcript and all sources

    Whose idea is it?

  7. 2d ago

    Centaurs, cyborgs and the human in the loop

    Season 2, episode 2. Does AI make people better? On some tasks dramatically – and on the next one it makes them worse, without anyone noticing. A creativity researcher and a designer on the jagged frontier, the AI that replaces a teammate, and why a human in the loop is not automatically a safeguard. Chapters00:00 Cold open00:09 Welcome01:17 Centaurs, cyborgs and the jagged frontier07:32 The cybernetic teammate12:49 When one plus one is less than two Elisabeth talks with Yannis, a creativity researcher in Zurich, and Noa, who runs a design studio in Barcelona. Why 758 consultants got 40 percent better on one task and worse on the next. Why experienced developers were slower with AI – and believed they were faster. What a team does that a chatbot doesn't. Why adding a human to an AI often makes the result worse than the better of the two – and when it doesn't. The guests try answers to two of the exposés' open questions. Season 2 – Ideation & AI. The conversations start from the thirteen exposés on ideation.zone, each built around one core study on what happens when people generate, select and judge ideas with artificial intelligence: from creativity tests and brainstorming experiments to AI co-scientists, design fixation, intellectual property and the risks for thinking and cultural diversity. The guests – a creativity researcher and a designer who runs ideation workshops – bring their own fields to it and test the studies against practice. Essays in this episode (Ideation & AI → Human in the loop) Centaurs, cyborgs and the jagged frontierThe cybernetic teammateWhen one plus one is less than twoMentioned in this episode Dell'Acqua et al. (2023): Navigating the jagged technological frontier – the BCG experimentNoy & Zhang (2023), Science: Experimental evidence on the productivity effects of generative AIBrynjolfsson, Li & Raymond (2025): Generative AI at work – customer supportMETR (2025): Measuring the impact of early-2025 AI on experienced open-source developer productivityDell'Acqua (2022): Falling asleep at the wheel – human/AI collaboration in recruitingAdvanced and freestyle chess: Kasparov's centaurs (1998) and the 2005 freestyle tournamentParasuraman & Manzey (2010), Human Factors: Complacency and bias in human use of automationDell'Acqua, Ayoubi, Lifshitz, Sadun, Mollick et al. (2025): The Cybernetic Teammate (NBER)Generative AI collaboration and intrinsic motivation – four studies, 3,500+ participants (2025)Bruce Tuckman (1965): Developmental sequence in small groupsAmy Edmondson (1999): Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teamsVaccaro, Almaatouq & Malone (2024), Nature Human Behaviour: When combinations of humans and AI are usefulAgarwal, Moehring, Rajpurkar & Salz (2023): Combining human expertise with AI – radiologyBansal et al. (2021), CHI: Does the whole exceed its parts? AI explanations and complementary team performanceBuçinca, Malaya & Gajos (2021): To trust or to think – cognitive forcing functionsSpeakers: Elisabeth (Host), Yannis (creativity researcher), Noa (designer). AI-generated voices, fictional speakers; script researched and written with AI. Transcript and all sources

    Centaurs, cyborgs and the human in the loop

  8. Trailer

    Welcome to ideation.zone

    The trailer: what this podcast is about, how it works, and the voices you will hear – one question at a time, two guests who see it differently. Chapters00:00 Welcome00:34 Time & AI00:43 Ideation & AI00:59 Organizations & AI Speakers: Elisabeth (Host), Krzysztof (sociologist of time), Francesca (AI lead), Yannis (creativity researcher), Noa (designer), Niels (organization theorist), Claire (COO). AI-generated voices, fictional speakers; script researched and written with AI. Transcript and all sources

See All (13)

Trailer

About

Conversations on ideas and artificial intelligence – what AI does to our thinking, our time and the organizations we work in. In each episode a host and two experts, one from research and one from practice, take a topic from the essays on ideation.zone and look at it from more than one side: a thesis, an antithesis, and a synthesis that does not pretend the disagreement away. Seasons Season 1 – Time & AI: speed, desynchronisation, availability and the future, based on Hartmut Rosa's theory of social acceleration.Season 2 – Ideation & AI: creativity, judgement and who owns an idea made with a machine.Season 3 – Organizations & AI: hierarchy, decisions, rule-breaking, control and where tomorrow's experts will come from.All essays with their sources are free to read at https://ideation.zone AI-generated voices, fictional speakers. The scripts are researched and written with AI and reviewed before publication.

Information

  • Creator
    Andreas Schmuck
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    13
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 ideation.zone
  • Show Website
    ideation.zone