The Evolution of Digital Employees: Reshaping Organizational Design in Contemporary Workplaces

Abstract Book of the 10th International Conference on Research in Business, Management and Finance

Year: 2026

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The Evolution of Digital Employees: Reshaping Organizational Design in Contemporary Workplaces

Dr. Ivana Nacinovic Braje, Ana Aleksić Fredotović; Sanda Rašić Jelavić; Ivana Marić; Jelena Kovač

ABSTRACT:

The rise of digital technologies has led to the development of the concept of digital employee, autonomous but technology driven workers changing out traditional view of organizations as human-centric systems. Digital employees have the capacity to perform a range of complex tasks and make decisions. The objective of this paper is to provide a comprehensive examination of the emergence, evolution and current applications of digital employees within contemporary workplaces. The paper highlights the progression from early mechanized systems and rule-based software to modern robotic process automation (RPA) and AI-driven digital employees. Paper specifically focuses on organizational implications of this shift, addressing concerns such as job displacement, algorithmic bias, accountability, collaboration between human and digital employees and organizational impact of digital employees. In addition, the study incorporates findings from a case analysis of a large Croatian company in order to provide empirical findings from a real organizational context. Findings from literature review and empirical analysis allow for proposing strategies for supporting human and digital worker collaboration and a deeper understanding of how digital employees are reshaping work practices and organizational design in contemporary organizations.
Acknowledgement
The development of this paper was supported by funding received from the European Union’s NextGenerationEU initiative through the project Innovative Digital Technologies and Multidimensional Organizational Transformations (INOTRANS).

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence (Ai); Digital Employee; Non-Human Worker; Organizational Design; Robotic Process Automation (Rpa)