Seminar (Dept. of Management Science and Engineering)

Title: Enhancing Human Planning Decisions with AI: An Experimental Investigation and Evidence

Speaker: Lijia Tan (Eindhoven University of Technology)

Time: 10:00 (Thursday), May 30th, 2024

Venue: Room 1008, Mingde Business Building

Language: Chinese/English

ABSTRACT:

We experimentally investigate the impact of AI plans on human planning decisions in supply chains. The AI plans are based on a neural network and reinforcement learning algorithm, which provide recommendations for all decisions that humans need to make. We conducted two experiments. The first experiment examines the impact of AI plans on inexperienced and experienced planners, respectively. The first experiment shows that the presence of AI plans effectively improves the performance of inexperienced planners but barely affects experienced planners. Specifically, such AI plans assist inexperienced planners in performing as well as experienced planners, but they do not improve experienced planners' performance. The second experiment examines the impact of AI plans under a time-pressure environment. The results show that the presence of AI is more effective regardless of human experience when time pressure is present. In this study, our discussion on the interactive effects between AI plans and human experience and between AI plans and time pressure provides insights into the applications of AI in future supply chains.

SHORT BIOGRAPHY:

Dr. Lijia Tan is an Assistant Professor at Eindhoven University of Technology. Her research interests lie in Behavioral Operations Management, Decision Science, and Human and System Interactions. Her research focuses on auction mechanisms, supply chain contracts, and human decisions under uncertainty. Recently, she has been investigating human decision-making with the support of AI suggestions in the manufacturing context. Her work has been published in journals such as Management Science, European Journal of Operational Research, China Economic Review, and Pacific Economic Review.

She obtained her Ph.D. in Economics from Xiamen University and subsequently worked as an assistant professor at Tianjin University. She sequentially served as a postdoctoral researcher at Cologne University and Eindhoven University of Technology. She visited the Texas University of Dallas and the University of Duisburg-Essen as a visiting scholar.