Why does Automation Adoption in Organizations Remain a Fallacy?: Scrutinizing Practitioners' Imaginaries in an International Airport

In organizations, the interest in automation is long-standing. However, adopting automated processes remains challenging, even in environments that appear highly standardized and technically suitable for it. Through a case study in Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, this paper investigates automation as a broader sociotechnical system influenced by a complex network of actors and contextual factors. We study practitioners’ collective understandings of automation and subsequent efforts taken to implement it. Using imaginaries as a lens, we report findings from a qualitative interview study with 16 practitioners involved in airside automation projects. Our findings illustrate the organizational dynamics and complexities surrounding automation adoption, as reflected in the captured problem formulations, conceptions of the technology, envisioned human roles in autonomous operations, and perspectives on automation fit in the airside ecosystem. Ultimately, we advocate for contextual automation design, which carefully considers human roles, accounts for existing organizational politics, and avoids techno-solutionist approaches.