5th ISA Forum of Sociology (6-11 July 2025)

This session examines the effects of digitisation and artificial intelligence (AI) - in particular generative AI - on professional activities. Based on surveys, the papers present these contrasting effects on different professions. The aim is to identify the automation of work processes, to understand to what extent and how AI is making it possible to save time and increase reliability, but also to compete with established professional skills, promising productivity gains while threatening to deskill and disintermediate professionals. The aim is to understand the full complexity of the contributions these tools can make, but also their limitations, which explain their mixed or even limited penetration of certain tasks and professions. To do this, this session focuses on the interaction between these technologies and the professional practices of workers. The aim is to understand how workers in different sectors, such as medical and legal, evaluate and use (or not) artificial intelligence tools, for what reasons, and how they redefine professional boundaries and expertise. For the sake of coherence and comparability, papers on professions in the medical sector (general practitioners, specialists, e.g. in dermatology, radiology, but also nurses, technicians, etc. The challenge is to take into account the technical dimension of work and professions and what AI brings to professions today, in all the complexity of its effects.