AI-mediated strategizing: How generative AI reshapes organizational sensemaking and strategic decision-making

About the Project

This fully funded PhD studentship sponsored by Cranfield School of Management, invites applications for a full-time, three-year PhD exploring how generative AI is reshaping strategic decision-making, organizational sensemaking, and accountability in modern organizations. The studentship offers a full fee waiver and an annual bursary of £20,780, and is intended for an ambitious scholar with interests in AI governance, human–AI decision-making, and organizational strategy. The project will examine how AI-mediated strategizing transforms the framing, justification, and execution of strategic issues, addressing urgent challenges of judgement, defensibility, and responsibility as organizations increasingly rely on AI-generated logic and insights.

This project sits within strategic management and organization studies, particularly the strategy-as-practice and process-based research traditions, while engaging closely with AI governance and algorithmic organising. It examines how generative AI is transforming core managerial activities, especially strategic decision-making, sensemaking, and accountability, by reshaping how issues are framed, evidence is constructed, and authority is exercised. It is hugely relevant for modern business and management: as organizations increasingly embed AI into high-stakes decisions, understanding how to maintain judgement quality, transparency, and responsible governance becomes a critical capability, particularly in highly regulated and uncertainty-intensive sectors, as well as in organizations operating under intense public and stakeholder scrutiny.

The project aims to develop a process model of AI-mediated strategizing that explains shifts in sensemaking, accountability, human–AI collaboration, and the quality and defensibility of strategic decisions, while also generating practical insights and tools to improve AI-enabled decision-making in organizations. It will explore how AI outputs enter decision processes, how they become accepted or contested as evidence, and how responsibility is negotiated when AI materially influences strategic choices.

Cranfield School of Management is one of the UK’s Top 10 Business Schools, known for combining rigorous research with exceptionally strong engagement with practice and policy. It sits within Cranfield University, UK’s only entirely postgraduate university specialising in technology and management. The successful candidate will join an intellectually vibrant scholarly environment, supported by supervisors with expertise in strategy and organization studies, qualitative and process research, and the organizational implications of digital and AI technologies. The studentship will enable the student to focus on producing research of the highest quality while benefiting from Cranfield’s active research seminar series, doctoral training provision, executive education programmes, and collaborative academic community.

The expected academic outcome is a robust, theory-building account of how generative AI reshapes strategy formation by influencing sensemaking, justification work, and the distribution of accountable agency in organizations. The project will also produce practice-relevant outputs, offering evidence-based guidance on how organizations can integrate generative AI into strategic decision processes without undermining defensibility, transparency, or responsible oversight. These insights will be valuable to leaders, governance functions, and policymakers seeking to design decision rights, review routines, and accountability mechanisms that keep human judgement meaningful while making effective use of AI’s exploratory and synthesising capabilities.

This studentship offers a strong platform for an ambitious early-career scholar to develop and publish cutting-edge research at the intersection of strategy, organization studies, and AI. The candidate will receive academic and financial support to participate actively in a rigorous scholarly community, including research seminars, paper development workshops, and conference participation, with the expectation of developing outputs suitable for leading journals in the field. In addition, the student will have access to tailored doctoral training opportunities and the wider Cranfield University ecosystem, which is strongly oriented toward producing research in technology and management with real-world relevance and influence.

The successful candidate will gain advanced research capability in qualitative and process-oriented methods, including generating new knowledge from data, analysing complex organizational decision processes, and becoming a confident scholar in strategic management. They will also develop highly transferable skills in critical thinking, argument development, persuasion, project management, as well as communicating insights to both academic and practitioner audiences. The PhD will position graduates competitively for academic careers in strategy and organization studies, as well as research and analytical roles in industry, policy, regulation, and consulting where responsible AI and governance are increasingly central concerns.

Entry requirements

Applicants should have a first- or second-class UK honours degree, or equivalent, in a related discipline. A research background in strategy, organisation studies, AI, or a related field would be particularly welcome. The position is best suited to candidates seeking a research-intensive academic career and motivated by the challenges of producing original, top-quality scholarship. The successful candidate will bring strong qualitative research skills, intellectual curiosity about developments at the intersection of strategy, organisation theory, and AI, and the persistence required for iterative, evidence-driven research with complex data. Prior evidence of sustained engagement with research, such as a substantial thesis, published work, research assistance, or independent projects, is welcome, as is enthusiasm for active participation in a rigorous scholarly community of conferences, seminars, and paper development workshops aimed at producing work suitable for leading journals in the field.

Applicants must also meet Cranfield's English language requirements, where applicable. Approved English language tests and required scores are detailed below:

Funding

Sponsored by Cranfield School of Management, this studentship will provide a bursary of £20,780 (tax free) plus fees for three years.

This opportunity is open to Home and Overseas fee status students. Eligibility for Home fee status is determined with reference to UK Department for Education rules. As a guiding principle UK or Irish nationals who are ordinarily resident in either the UK or Republic of Ireland pay Home tuition fees. All other students (including those from the Channel Islands and Isle of Man) pay Overseas fees. Further advice can be found on the UK Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA) website.

How to apply

For further information please contact:

Name: Dr Mehdi Safavi

Email: mehdi.safavi@cranfield.ac.uk

If you are eligible to apply, please complete the online application form.

We will also require a research proposal, see our guide to writing a research proposal for more information. Admissions will contact you to request this once your application has been received.

Please note that we cannot consider your application until both your online application and research proposal have been received.