New JBA Collection: AI and Business Anthropology

The Journal of Business Anthropology has published a themed collection of essays on artificial intelligence and business anthropology. The collection was released as Early View on July 9, 2026, and was edited by Matt Artz and Adam Gamwell.

Nine essays follow an editorial introduction. Rather than advancing a single position, the collection takes stock of what artificial intelligence means for the field from a range of vantage points, including market research, healthcare design, university teaching, consulting, and entrepreneurship. The contributors do not agree with one another. Some read the current moment as a genuine break with what came before, others as a continuation of longer-running arguments about technology, method, and the place of anthropologists in business. Most of the contributors are based in the United States, and the collection is offered as a snapshot of a conversation in progress rather than a survey of the field worldwide.

Several contributors will be familiar to readers of this site. Robert J. Morais and Timothy de Waal Malefyt are members of the BusinessAnthro.com team, as are the collection’s two editors. Autumn D. McDonald and Melissa Vogel have both contributed syllabi to the teaching resources collected here.

The full collection:

• AI and Business Anthropology: Introduction to the Themed Essays, by Matt Artz and Adam Gamwell
• Beyond the Human Metaphor: Integrating AI into 21st-Century Business Culture, by Alexandra Mack
• Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad AI? Fear and Loathing of AI and How Business Anthropologists Can Get Over It, by Robert J. Morais
• Anthropology in Market Research and Artificial Intelligence: Crossroads of Opportunity or Forthcoming Pitfalls?, by Autumn D. McDonald
• Attuning Algorithms: Designing AI for Relational Intelligence for Patient Care, by Yaya Ren
• “The Wizard” of AI, by Melissa Vogel
• The Magical Power of Words in Large Language Models, by Timothy de Waal Malefyt and Matt Artz
• Scaling Anthropology Through AI: An Entrepreneurial Move, by Lora Koycheva
• Reclaiming Relevance: A New Agenda for Business Anthropology in the Age of AI, by Adam Gamwell and Phil Surles
• From Digital Turn to Agentic Turn: Continuity and Rupture in Business Anthropology, by Matt Artz

The Journal of Business Anthropology is an open access journal published at Copenhagen Business School. All ten pieces are free to read at rauli.cbs.dk.