Which tasks can be entrusted to artificial intelligence, and when should humans remain involved in decision-making processes? Determining how decision-making responsibilities should be distributed between humans and AI is one of the key challenges facing companies in the AI era.

Prof. Jan vom Brocke and Dr. Thomas Haskamp from the Department of Information Systems at the University of Münster, together with Dr. Ina Sebastian and Prof. Peter Weill from the MIT Center for Information Systems Research (CISR), have developed a framework to help companies address this question. The “AI Decision Matrix” enables executives to determine, based on two dimensions, the extent to which humans and autonomous AI agents should be involved in decision-making processes.

The researchers developed the matrix based on interviews with 30 executives. It is based on the understanding that decisions vary in complexity and risk: While some decisions are predictable and involve limited risk, others are characterized by ambiguity and can have far-reaching consequences. Depending on the nature of the decision, greater human involvement or a higher degree of AI autonomy may therefore be appropriate.

Learn more about the framework here.

This semester, the Chair of Information Systems and Supply Chain Management, headed by Prof. Bernd Hellingrath, is offering the project seminar “Agentic Purchase Recommendations for Inventory Management Optimization” for master’s students. In collaboration with the Münster-based company pacemaker.ai, the students are investigating how agentic AI systems can support supply chain planners in their day-to-day work, particularly with replenishment decisions and demand forecasting.

Planners face complex decisions every day: volatile demand, supply bottlenecks, and a large number of materials, suppliers, and constraints all have to be kept in view at once. Agentic AI opens up new possibilities here. Unlike traditional forecasting models, AI agents can independently gather information, detect anomalies, explain their recommendations, and interact with users in natural language. The central question of the seminar is therefore: How should such a digital “sidekick” be designed so that it genuinely relieves planners of work while keeping humans in charge of the decisions?

Working in small teams, the students will analyze existing planning processes and planners’ requirements and review the current state of research on agentic AI and human-AI collaboration. Building on this, they will develop their own concepts and prototypes, such as an agent that explains forecast deviations in an understandable way, an assistant that prepares order proposals along with their rationale, or a system that proactively flags critical shortages. The teams will be supported by experts from pacemaker.ai, who will provide insights into real-world planning processes, data, and practical requirements.

pacemaker.ai is headquartered in Münster, is part of the thyssenkrupp group, and develops AI software for industrial supply chains, with solutions for demand forecasting and replenishment.

The Legal and Administrative Informatics Conference (RVI) was held on September 24–25, 2026, at TU Dresden as part of the Informatics Festival and in conjunction with the GI Annual Conference INFORMATIK.

Michael Räckers from the Department of Information Systems at the University of Münster organized the conference together with Gunnar Auth (HSF Meißen) and Tim Pidun (HTW Dresden). The event brought together approximately 100 participants. In cooperation with the Informatics Festival, the organizing team also helped shape the overarching theme, “Digital Resilience,” and was responsible for part of the main conference program. Michael Räckers also moderated the panel “Digital Resilience and Sovereignty – Boosters for Innovative Administration and State Modernization?”

The conference also included the annual general meeting of the GI Special Interest Group on Administrative Informatics. After nine years as the group’s spokesperson, Michael Räckers handed over the role to his successor, Gunnar Auth. Tim Pidun and Vera Spitzer (University of Koblenz) were elected deputy spokespersons.

Michael Räckers will remain a member of the group’s steering committee. Michael Koddebusch from the Department of Information Systems was also newly elected to the committee. The University of Münster is therefore represented by two members on the committee.

The 2026 Legal and Administrative Informatics Conference focused on the challenges of digital transformation in public administration, which is unfolding amid pressure to innovate, rule-of-law requirements, and geopolitical and technological dependencies. The conference explored digital resilience and digital sovereignty both as concepts for protection and stability and as potential drivers or barriers to innovation in public administration. It brought together legal, technical, and organizational perspectives and provided an interdisciplinary forum for exchange between academia and practice.

from left to right: Tim Pidun, Vera Spitzer, Gunnar Auth, Michael Räckers

The 21st International Conference on Information Systems (WI 2026) took place from September 6 to 10, 2026, at Johannes Kepler University Linz in Austria. Under the theme “Sociotechnical Systems in the Age of AI,” the conference focused on how artificial intelligence is changing the use of technology and the role of humans in business contexts. The conference brought together researchers and practitioners and provided a platform for exchanging ideas on current developments in Information Systems. In addition to academic contributions, the event also emphasized networking within the community.

Staff and students from the Department of Information Systems at the University of Münster were also represented with numerous contributions. A total of six papers were presented, covering topics including digital transformation, digital solutions for the circular economy, and digital product passports: 

• “Tool Adoption in Systematic Literature Reviews: An Empirical Investigation of the Review Process” (Näscher, Hans-Henning; Strohmann, Timo; vom Brocke, Jan) 

• “Why Overcoming Does Not Work: A Configurational Reconceptualization of the Barrier Construct in Digital Transformation Research” (Poppe, Celine; Koddebusch, Michael; Brandt, Tobias) 

• “Digital Solutions for Improving Circularity in Textile Recycling” (Reichert, Nicole; Sander, Marie; Stanlein, David) 

• “Generation Z Consumer Preferences for Digital Product Passport Attributes” (Herold, Tim Lukas; Montsch, Celine; Stanlein, David) 

• “ReuseMe: A DSR Study on Simplifying Local Donation and Reuse” (Khidirboev, Uroljon; Khudoyberdiev, Isroil; Koddebusch, Michael) 

• “The Influence of Explainable AI on Bias in Decision-Making Processes” (Vahland, Carolin Elisabeth; Burger, Mara) 

It is particularly noteworthy that three of the presented papers by Nicole Reichert, Marie Sander, Tim Lukas Herold, Celine Montsch, Uroljon Khidirboev, and Isroil Khudoyberdiev emerged from the master’s seminar “Digital Enablers of the Circular Economy” and were accepted as full papers in regular tracks. 

In addition, Michael Koddebusch co-chaired the track “Smart Cities & Digital Government” together with Bettina Distel and Tobias Guggenberger (University of Bayreuth). 

At the Falling Walls Lab Münster 2026, Dr. Lea Püchel from the Department of Information Systems placed second with her pitch titled “Breaking the Wall of Data Dependency.” On September 11, eight early-career researchers presented their research and startup ideas in three-minute pitches in English at the REACH – Euregio Start-up Center.

In her research, Lea Püchel examines how digital documentation software in childcare centers affects trust between educators and parents. Building on this, she is developing software designed to provide educators with guidance and greater legal certainty when handling data.

The Falling Walls Lab is an international initiative of the Berlin-based Falling Walls Foundation. In just three minutes, early-career researchers pitch ideas with the potential to create a positive impact on society. The winners of the local competitions qualify for the Falling Walls Science Summit in Berlin.

© Uni MS - Nike Gais

Kristina Magnussen and Rainer Böhme have received the best paper award for their paper "Personal Data Accuracy is a Blind Spot in LLM Privacy Research" at the Annual Privacy Forum 2026. 

The paper highlights an underexplored aspect of privacy research for Large Language Models (LLMs): personal data accuracy. LLMs are the technology behind AI chatbots. It is a known problem that they sometimes generate text that is nonsensical, false or might contain fabricated facts. This can also happen when data about natural persons is generated. The opinon paper draws attention to these personal data accuracy failures as an important, but often overlooked aspect of privacy. The authors link them to legal principles, propose a taxonomy to classify them, and give directions for future research.

The paper was written in the context of the SMARD-GOV project and funded by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space.

Links related to this news
You can read the paper here (open access). 

Projekt SMARD-GOV

From August 28 to 30, Münster celebrated the 80th anniversary of North Rhine-Westphalia. Under the motto “Democracy lives. Diversity connects.”, NRW Day 2026 offered numerous opportunities to experience the diversity of the state and explore different aspects of society, science, and culture.

The Department of Information Systems was also represented with a booth at the Science Mile. Under the title “AI Transformation – A Look into the Future,” the department presented current developments in artificial intelligence and showcased selected research projects highlighting concrete applications and impacts of AI.

The focus was on direct dialogue with visitors: How is AI changing business, society, and organizations? What opportunities does it offer, and what questions and challenges come with the increasing transformation driven by AI? Numerous conversations provided an opportunity to discuss different perspectives on these topics and share new insights.

Prospective students also took the opportunity to learn more about the Information Systems program, its broad range of subject areas, and the career prospects it offers. They gained insights into the program’s content and learned about the diverse career and professional opportunities at the intersection of business and computer science.

For the department, NRW Day provided a valuable opportunity to engage with a broad audience and bring academic research into conversation with the public. The many conversations and encounters made one thing clear: There is strong interest in how AI is transforming our future and how we can shape this transformation.

Prof. Dr Jan vom Brocke, Director of the Department of Information Systems, has been awarded the Best Published Paper Award by the CTO Division of the Academy of Management, together with his co-authors Christoph J. Frick (PhD) and Prof. Dr Stefan Seidel (University of Cologne). The study, entitled “Regulating Emerging Technologies: Prospective Sensemaking Through Abstraction and Elaboration”, has been published in the prestigious journal MIS Quarterly.

The paper focuses on one of the most important questions of digital transformation: how can new technologies be regulated in such a way as to avoid harmful effects whilst at the same time promoting innovation? To get to the bottom of this tension, the authors examined the development of the blockchain law in Liechtenstein and how stakeholders from various sectors – the legal sector, regulatory authorities, government, business and technology – worked together to shape this law collectively.

Their key finding: successful regulation arises from collective, forward-looking sensemaking – a shared endeavour to achieve understanding, based on the two closely interlinked processes of abstraction and elaboration. In this way, the participants succeeded in rethinking the subject of regulation step by step: from blockchain to ‘trustworthy technology’, from cryptocurrency to the token economy, and from the traditional roles of financial service providers to new roles within technological systems.

You can read about the conclusions the authors draw from these findings regarding the regulation of technologies in the award-winning paper (open access).

You can find out more about Prof. Dr Jan vom Brocke here.

The Student Council of the School of Business and Economics once again presented the annual Teaching Awards on behalf of the students. The awards recognize courses that stand out through outstanding commitment, high teaching quality, and a lasting contribution to students' academic success.

In the study programs Business Administration, Economics, and Information Systems, three courses from both the bachelor's and master's programs were nominated. From these nominations, the Teaching Award Committee selected this year's award recipients. Since 2010, the Teaching Awards have honored lecturers who demonstrate an exceptional commitment to excellent teaching. The award ceremony took place as part of the graduation celebration organized by the Student Council.

Awards for Information Systems:

• Bachelor: Dr. Lea Püchel & Ronja Dobler – Resource Overshoot Day 2.0 – Further Development of a Sustainability Tool for the University of Münster
• Master: Prof. Bernd Hellingrath – Supply Chain Management

Further nominations:

• Bachelor:Dr. Shariga Sivanathan – Digital Future Challenge
• Bachelor: Dr. Jens Lechtenbörger –  AIlaborate - Learnweb as a Personal Learning Environment for Students
• Master: Prof. Benedikt Berger – Exploring the Capabilities and Limits of AI Agents
• Master: Prof. Bernd Hellingrath & Prof. Luiz Felipe Scavardo do Carmo – Supply Chain Logistics Management

Congratulations to all nominees and award recipients on this well-deserved recognition!

The SMARD-GOV research project investigates how large language models (LLMs) can support decision-making processes in public administration in a secure, privacy-preserving, and legally compliant manner. The project is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) and is jointly carried out by Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), the University of Münster, and PROSOZ Herten GmbH.

Over the past months, the project has generated new insights and presented its research findings at several academic and professional events.

As part of the Computers, Privacy and Data Protection (CPDP) conference in Brussels, the University of Münster organized an interdisciplinary workshop on data accuracy in LLMs. Together with journalist Martin Bernklau, legal expert Constantin Lessmann (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg) and computer scientist Kristina Magnussen (University of Münster) discussed the risks of inaccurate AI-generated statements about individuals, the legal requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and current technical challenges. The workshop highlighted the continued need for research to develop trustworthy, privacy-preserving AI systems.

At the end of June, Johannes von Ivernois (University of Münster) participated in a hackathon organized by the German Federal Ministry for Digital and State Modernization (BMDS) to further develop the project "Faster Planning and Implementation through AI (SPARK)" in Berlin. As SPARK shares several thematic overlaps with SMARD-GOV, the event provided valuable opportunities to gain new insights for the project's research while contributing SMARD-GOV's findings to the further development of SPARK.

At the MEMO Conference at the University of Münster, Prof. Tobias Brandt presented initial findings from interviews and a pilot experimental study. The results were discussed with experts from public administration, fostering an exchange on current challenges and opportunities related to AI-supported administrative processes.

In addition, the SMARD-GOV team organized two expert workshops addressing the question: "How can LLMs be integrated into administrative procedures in a legally compliant way?". The workshops were aimed at stakeholders from the municipal sector and provided insights into initial project results while facilitating discussions on legal and technical challenges.

Research Partners Wanted

SMARD-GOV is currently looking for research partners from public administration to support the further development and validation of reliable and privacy-preserving AI systems. Real-world application data is needed to evaluate the developed approaches under practical conditions. Partners will gain early insights into project results while contributing to the development of privacy-preserving and legally compliant AI solutions for public administration.

Interested in collaborating? Contact the SMARD-GOV project team: Constantin Lessmann (constantin.lessmann@fau.de). 

In May, the new research project “SynDIKAT” was launched. The acronym stands for “Synthetic Disinformation Data, Infrastructure for Collaboration and Analysis Toolbox for Social Media Research”. Funded for three years by the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR), the collaborative project focuses on disinformation in social media.

The project develops approaches for the privacy-compliant sharing and generation of synthetic social media data using large language models (LLMs) and agent-based simulations. Its main focus is on methodological questions in disinformation research.

According to the researchers, one central problem is the lack of shared social media datasets. As a result, methods for detecting and combating disinformation can currently only be compared and evaluated to a limited extent. SynDIKAT therefore aims to enable legally compliant data sharing and improve the evaluation of relevant algorithms for pattern and anomaly detection.

The project is led by Prof. Dr. Christian Grimme, Janina Lütke-Stockdiek, and Michael Vogt from the Department of Information Systems, as well as Prof. Dr. Thorsten Quandt, Malin Zoe Richter, and Paula Philine Jung from the Department of Communication at the University of Münster. Additional partners include GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, the Center for Advanced Internet Studies, and TU Dortmund University.

Links related to this news
BMFTR SynDIKAT

Press release from the University of Münster

This semester, the Department of Information Systems once again had the pleasure of welcoming Dr. Nathalie Mitev as part of the Visiting International Professor (VIP) Program of the School of Business and Economics. Since 2015, she has been an integral part of our international academic community and has been coming to Münster twice a year to teach doctoral seminars.

This semester, she led the seminar “Qualitative Research Methods,” in which participants explored various qualitative research methods as well as approaches to data collection and were able to apply them to their own dissertation projects.

Dr. Nathalie Mitev is currently affiliated with Université Paris Dauphine – PSL in France. She teaches master’s and doctoral students at universities around the world, particularly in the areas of qualitative research methods and academic writing. Her research focuses on information systems management and digital organizational change.

At the end of the seminar, the doctoral students took the opportunity to thank Dr. Mitev for her great commitment. Despite high temperatures and considerable travel delays, she once again made the journey to Münster to share her expertise with the participants. Dr. Mitev said she was “very touched” by the gesture. With the gift, the doctoral students expressed their appreciation for her many years of dedication and her committed teaching.

From June 15 to 17, several members of the Department of Information Systems participated in the European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS) 2026 in Milan. Under the conference theme “Reimagining Digital Technology for Business, Management, and Society”, they presented their current research on topics such as digital sustainability, artificial intelligence, process mining, human-AI collaboration, and digital transformation.

In total, the department was represented with eight papers:

• Navigating The Twin Transition: A Paradox Perspective On Concurrent Digital and Sustainability Change – Daria Stumkat, Jan Stockhinger
• Actor-Networks In Corporate Digital Sustainability Initiatives – David Stanlein, Lea Püchel, Enni Juntunen, Tobias Brandt
• Non-Profits Digital Transformation: Understanding Organisational Identity Dynamics – Maria Julia Torres, Lea Püchel, Markus P. Zimmer, Tobias Brandt
• Unpacking The Role Of Individuals In Process Mining: A Literature Review and Research Framework – Julian Dyong, Sandro Franzoi, Jan vom Brocke
• Schnitzel-Prediction: Designing Human-AI Collaboration For Cafeteria Demand Forecasting – Justus Cappel, Timo Strohmann, Mara Burger, Dr. Marleen Voß, Jan vom Brocke
• How Generative AI Drives Field-Level Change In Management Consulting – Robin Killewald, Thomas Haskamp
• When We Cannot Stop The Data Flow: The Emotional Life Of Data In A Children’s Daycare Center – Lea Püchel, Tobias Brandt
• The AI-Enabled Circular Economy: Extracting and Synthesizing Design Knowledge – Linda Sagnier Eckert, Christoph Hoppe, Timo Strohmann, Anne Ixmeier, Daniel Heinz

In addition, Shariga Sivanathan moderated the panel “Pathways to a Resilient IS Community: Are We There Yet?”

Particularly noteworthy were the awards received by Miriam Herding and Jan Stockhinger as Best Reviewers, as well as Lea Püchel as Best Associate Editor.

Members of the department were also actively involved in the conference organization: Jan vom Brocke served as Conference Co-Chair, Lea Püchel contributed to the ECIS Sustainability Initiative, and Katrin Bergener supported the conference as Social Media Communication Co-Chair.

Beyond the academic exchange, ECIS 2026 also offered numerous networking opportunities, including the traditional ERCIS@ECIS reception.