The Evolution of Human Roles in Artificial Intelligence in Uganda: A Conceptual Framework and Research Agenda

As AI technology has moved forward over the generations, humans have increasingly been involved in the design, development, deployment and governance of intelligent systems. Based on a review of interdisciplinary literature, this conceptual paper brings together the Human Role Evolution Model (HREM), which views these roles as six interconnected roles: programmer, teacher, trainer, collaborator, governor, and co-evolution partner. The model is a representation of the evolution of roles as a redistribution, which is context-dependent, not an automatic linear process, of the human tasks, skills, decision authority and accountability. The paper looks at the impact of new forms of AI use in public service delivery, businesses, education, healthcare and the supply chain, in the context of Uganda's specific institutional and regulatory context, to explore the impact of the new AI applications on human roles within these contexts. The framework enriches the human–computer interaction, organisational studies, and AI governance literature with an integrated analytical framework for studying the evolving nature of human interaction with AI systems, and it offers a research agenda for studying human–AI interactions in developing country settings.