About

The authors.

This report is written and maintained by two researchers at the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU Wien). It builds on an ongoing co-authored programme of peer-reviewed research on AI workforce composition, digital innovation, and firm performance.

Christian Schumacher, PhD

Assistant Professor (tenure-track) · Institute for Strategic Management · Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU Wien)

Bio

Assistant Professor (tenure-track) at WU Wien's Institute for Strategic Management. Works with large-scale workforce datasets to study how firms allocate attention, capability, and human capital under AI-driven discontinuity: 1.9M+ Austrian employment records here, 30M+ individuals across the S&P 500 in his frontier-AI work, and a 1,927-firm panel in the workforce-architecture program. Previous stations: Copenhagen Business School (tenure-track Assistant Professor, 2021–24), Harvard University (Schumpeter Fellow, Weatherhead Center, 2019/20), and visiting research at INSEAD Singapore, Tsinghua Beijing, and Keio Tokyo. Marie Curie Fellow of the European Commission (2022–24). Teaches AI-Driven Decision-Making and AI for Business at WU Wien.

Homepage

Stations

WU Wien · Institute for Strategic Management · 2024–present · Assistant Professor (tenure-track)
Copenhagen Business School · 2021–24 · Assistant Professor (tenure-track)
Harvard University · Weatherhead Center · 2019/20 · Schumpeter Fellow
Visiting research · INSEAD Singapore · Tsinghua Beijing · Keio Tokyo

Credentials

PhD Management · University of Vienna (summa cum laude) · supervisor Markus Reitzig
MSc Economics · MSc Business Administration · BSc Philosophy (analytic)
Marie Curie Fellow · European Commission (2022–24)

Research agenda

Workforce architecture and AI value capture
How firms combine Build, Apply and Operate roles in balanced architectures. Multi-paper program built on a 1,927-firm S&P panel and a 3,236-firm complementarity panel; four co-authored studies, two under review at top journals.
AI brain-drain dynamics post-ChatGPT
Search-Build decoupling: how performance shortfalls reduce frontier-AI recruiting and accelerate deep-AI departures since November 2022. S&P 500 panel, 30.5M individuals, 65.6M job postings, three-coder taxonomy validation.
AI as Devil's Advocate in strategic decisions
Two pre-registered experiments testing whether LLM-powered counter-argumentation debiases high-stakes choices. Working paper at SMS; the empirical anchor for the AI-Driven Decision-Making course at WU Wien.
Austria's AI workforce
The empirical foundation of this report: 1.9M+ Austrian employment records, 107,532 firms, eight-year panel, taxonomy κ = 0.84. Twelve-month research project with Tihanyi.

Selected publications

AI Workforce Architecture and Digital Innovation: Complementarity, Governance, and the Value of Balance
Under review at ICIS 2026 · 2026
Build, Apply, Operate: How AI Workforce Portfolio Composition Shapes Firm Value
Working paper · 2026
Search-Build Decoupling: Performance Feedback, Frontier AI Recruiting, and Internal Redeployment after the ChatGPT Moment
Working paper · 2026
AI as a Ruthless Contrarian: How LLM-Powered Devil's Advocacy Enhances Strategic Decision Making
SMS (Working paper) · 2026

Dr. Can Tihanyi

Assistant Professor · Institute for International Business · Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU Wien)

Bio

Assistant Professor at WU Wien's Institute for International Business. Decade-long arc on Austria's digitalization — from co-authoring the federal ministry's first major Industrie 4.0 report (2016) to the 1.9M-record AI-workforce panel that anchors this study. Visiting research and teaching at Keio University (Tokyo), Mahidol University International College (Bangkok), and Universidad Pontificia Comillas (Madrid). Doctoral dissertation on digitalization in international business. Current work combines large-scale workforce data with causal inference: a 3,236-firm complementarity panel (ICIS 2026 with Schumacher) studies how AI talent composition shapes firm value and national capability. Teaches Digitalization & Social Media and AI in SME Internationalization at graduate level.

Homepage

Stations

WU Wien · Institute for International Business · Assistant Professor
Visiting research and teaching · Keio University (Tokyo) · Mahidol University International College (Bangkok) · Universidad Pontificia Comillas (Madrid)
Co-author · Austria's first federal Industrie 4.0 report (2016)
PhD · Digitalization in International Business

Research agenda

AI workforce composition and firm value
Co-investigator on the build-apply-operate program. ICIS 2026 submission with Schumacher: 3,236 U.S. firms, 18,010 firm-years, 369-role taxonomy validated to Fleiss' κ = 0.84.
Mittelstand digitalization and AI adoption
Decade-long research program on demand-side investment in absorptive capacity, from the 2016 Industrie 4.0 report through today's 97-percent zero-AI-firm finding. Continuity of the structural diagnosis across two technology waves.
Austria's AI workforce
Co-author of this report. 1.9M+ Austrian employment records, 107,532 firms, eight-year panel, benchmarked against 37 European peers.

Selected publications

Industrie 4.0 und ihre Auswirkungen auf die Transportwirtschaft und Logistik
BMVIT — Austrian Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology · 2016
AI Workforce Architecture and Digital Innovation: Complementarity, Governance, and the Value of Balance
Under review at ICIS 2026 · 2026

How to cite this report

Version 4.0 · 5 May 2026

Plain text

Christian Schumacher, Can Tihanyi (2026). State of AI · Austria · 2026. Version 4.0. https://stateofai.at.

BibTeX

@techreport{stateofai_austria_2026,
  title  = {{State of AI · Austria · 2026}},
  author = {Schumacher, Christian and Tihanyi, Can},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {Version 4.0},
  url    = {https://stateofai.at},
  institution = {Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU Wien)}
}