Title: From AI Capability to Responsible Delegation: How Organizations Can Govern AI Roles in Digital Infrastructures
Speaker: Joan Rodon Mòdol (Esade Business School)
Time: 10:00 (Saturday), October 10th, 2026
Venue: Room 712, Mingde Business Building (Zhongguancun Campus)
Language: English
ABSTRACT:
Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly being deployed in critical sectors such as healthcare, finance, manufacturing, transportation, and telecommunications. As AI moves beyond experimentation, organizations face a fundamental question: not only what AI can do, but what role it should be allowed to play in organizational and infrastructural settings.
This lecture shifts the focus from AI capability to AI role delegation. Drawing on a theoretical framework for digital infrastructures, it explains why AI is often limited to functions such as prediction, diagnosis, recommendation, optimization, and constrained execution, even when greater autonomy appears technically feasible. The central argument is that responsible AI deployment depends not only on technological capability and governance principles, but also on whether the surrounding infrastructure can support, legitimize, sustain, and reverse AI-enabled learning and action.
The lecture introduces two key concepts: architectural space, which refers to the infrastructural conditions that make specific AI roles feasible, and algorithmic control points, the sociotechnical mechanisms through which AI-generated actions are authorized, validated, integrated, and kept reversible. Together, these concepts provide a practical framework for evaluating whether AI roles are technically possible, structurally feasible, and governable in practice.
The lecture offers managers, technology providers, regulators, and infrastructure operators a new perspective on responsible AI by highlighting the importance of organizational design, accountability, and reversibility in shaping the future role of AI within digital infrastructures.
SHORT BIOGRAPHY:
Joan Rodon Mòdol is the dean of Esade Business School, where he is Full Professor in the Department of Operations, Innovation & Data Sciences. He joined ESADE in 2000 and has served in many senior roles as Head of the Department of Information Systems, Associate Dean of the Bachelor of Business Administration, and Vice-Dean of Faculty and Research. In October 2025, he was appointed as a member of the 5th International Advisory Committee of Renmin Business School, Renmin University of China.
Dr. Rodon’s research is focused on the creation, evolution, and governance of digital infrastructures and platforms. He has published his research in several academic journals, such as MIS Quarterly, Journal of the Association for Information Systems, Journal of Management Studies, European Journal of Information Systems and the International Journal of Production Economics.