Shaping the future of work with AI
Master鈥檚 student Wouter van Ingen explored how employees actively shape collaboration with AI, showing how technology and meaningful work can reinforce each other.
AI is rapidly becoming part of everyday work. Organizations experiment with intelligent systems, while employees look for clarity about how their roles are changing. The research of Operations Management and Logistics master鈥檚 student directly addresses this societal question. On April 8, he received first prize of the David van Lennep Master鈥檚 Thesis Award 2026 for his thesis Crafting the AI Integrated Workplace.
Rather than focusing on organizational rollouts of AI, Van Ingen examined how employees themselves can shape collaboration with AI. His central message is that AI is not simply something that happens to people. Employees can make deliberate choices about tasks, work practices, and how they use technology.
TENSION
Across many sectors, uncertainty is rising on the workplace floor. Employees face questions about skills, autonomy, and the meaning of their work. While AI promises support and efficiency, it can also reduce oversight or job satisfaction when the human perspective is overlooked.
The research responds by showing that employees benefit from having space to redesign their work. By consciously aligning tasks with AI and exploring new ways of working, people gain more control over technological change while preserving ownership and craftsmanship.
Approach
In his thesis, Van Ingen developed a fourteen day online training based on job crafting. Participants learned how to proactively adapt their tasks and their use of AI. The results showed positive effects on AI use, alignment between human task and technology, and proactive and innovative behavior.
The study underlines that AI integration is not only a technical challenge. It also requires attention to human behavior, motivation, and how people experience their work.
Impact
The societal relevance of this research lies in the changing relationship between humans and technology. As AI increasingly supports decision making, this work helps organizations adopt technology without reducing employees to executors of automated processes.
Van Ingen shows that meaningful work does not disappear because of AI, but can be actively reshaped. By placing employees at the center, the research contributes to a future in which technology supports people rather than replaces them.
Recognition
The David van Lennep Master鈥檚 Thesis Award is presented annually by the Dutch Foundation for Psychotechnics to master鈥檚 research focused on people, work, and organizations. The jury recognized this thesis for its scientific quality and societal relevance.
The thesis was supervised by Evangelia Demerouti, Sonja Rispens, and .
About the NSvP
Founded one hundred years ago, the Dutch Foundation for Psychotechnics promotes knowledge development in the field of people, work, and organizations. Since 1997, the David van Lennep Master鈥檚 Thesis Award has been presented annually to the three best master鈥檚 theses in this domain. Award winners receive prize money of 2,000, 1,500, and 1,000 euros.
- Read Wouter van Ingen 's master鈥檚 thesis: