Mohammad Hossein Jarrahi (born 1982) is an information scientist and academic who serves as a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His research focuses on how artificial intelligence and digital systems are used in work and organizational settings, including topics such as algorithmic management, future of work and collaboration between humans and AI.
Jarrahi was born in Tehran in 1982. He completed his primary and secondary education at Alavi School in Tehran and earned a bachelor's degree from Shahid Beheshti University in 2005. He later moved to the United Kingdom, where he received a master's degree in information systems from the London School of Economics in 2006.
He began doctoral studies at the Pennsylvania State University College of Information Sciences and Technology under the supervision of Steve Sawyer. He subsequently transferred with Sawyer to the Syracuse University School of Information Studies, where he completed his PhD in 2013. His doctoral research examined the role of social technologies in supporting knowledge sharing within and across organizational boundaries.
Following the completion of his doctorate, Jarrahi joined the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2013. He was promoted to full professor in 2024.
His work adopts a sociotechnical approach, drawing on perspectives from information science, computer science, management studies, and the sociology of work. He has collaborated with researchers across disciplines to study the organizational and implications of artificial intelligence, digital platforms, and emerging intelligent systems for future of work and organization.
Jarrahi's early research focused on remote work and mobile knowledge work, particularly the ways digital infrastructures enable or constrain work practices. This research later expanded to examine digitally mediated work arrangements such as digital nomadism and location-independent work, addressing the spatial, temporal, and organizational dimensions of digitally enabled labor. His work in this area has been cited in studies of remote work practices that became more widespread following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jarrahi has conducted research on algorithmic management and digital labor platforms, specifically the role of algorithms in coordinating, evaluating, and controlling independent knowledge workers. His research also investigates the implications of algorithmic systems for autonomy, control, and coordination in contemporary workplaces.
In 2018, Jarrahi published research introducing the concept of humanâÂÂAI symbiosis, which examines how humans and artificial intelligence systems may complement one another in organizational decision-making rather than operate in purely substitutive relationships. He has also studied humanâÂÂAI complementarity in knowledge processes, learning and adaptation between humans and AI systems, and the division of labor between human and intelligent agents across different types of contexts.
Jarrahi has contributed to scholarship on hybrid intelligence, which describes how people and artificial intelligence systems can work together to produce results that neither could achieve alone. He has also studied the skills professionals need to work effectively with algorithmic systems, including what he describes as algorithmic competencies, such as understanding how algorithms influence decisions and knowing when to apply human judgment.
Jarrahi's research has been cited in international media and practitioner-oriented publications addressing the social and organizational implications of artificial intelligence. He has contributed to media outlets such as the Financial Times and The Economist and articles in practice centered venues such as Harvard Business Review, MIT Sloan Management Review, Communications of the ACM, and California Management Review.
He has delivered lectures and participated in executive education programs on topics related to artificial intelligence, digital platforms, and the future of work for organizations including the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the Asian Development Bank, Novonesis, Harvard Learning Innovations Laboratory, and the Urban Libraries Council.