When Mohammad Hossein Jarrahi ’13 reflects on his path from Iran to London to Syracuse, he frames it not as a linear journey but as a series of intersections—between countries, disciplines, and ideas. Now a full professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and director of its undergraduate information science program, Jarrahi is at the forefront of research exploring how people and AI shape each other.
“I always knew I wanted to stay in research,” Jarrahi said. “Even when I didn’t know much about teaching, I knew I wanted to explore how people interact with information systems in organizations.”
After earning his undergraduate degree in Iran and a master’s in information systems at London School of Economics London, Jarrahi came to the United States to work with renowned iSchool faculty member Steve Sawyer. “I actually started my PhD at Penn State, but Steve moved to Syracuse after my first year, and I followed,” he explained. “It wasn’t just the school—it was the scholar who brought me there.”
Still, Syracuse ended up being the perfect fit. “The iSchool has a strong organizational focus that sets it apart from other programs. My entire committee had backgrounds related to the intersection of work contexts and technology. That interdisciplinary mindset—seeing technology in its real-world, social context—became the foundation of my research.”
That socialtechnical lens defines Jarrahi’s current work. As a tenured faculty member, he devotes much of his time to researching emerging technologies and how they transform modern work. His focus? Algorithmic management and the evolving human-AI relationship.
“I study things like gig platforms, flexible work, and AI-based coordination systems,” Jarrahi said. “I was one of the early scholars looking at digital nomads, and since 2017 I’ve been exploring how AI systems—not just tools like ChatGPT, but broader algorithmic systems—manage and interact with people.”
Jarrahi coined the term “human-AI symbiosis” to describe this partnership. “It’s not about technology replacing us,” he said. “It’s about how we work together—how humans and AI augment each other.”
His work has taken on new urgency in the wake of generative AI tools like ChatGPT. “There’s so much hype—some of it too optimistic, some of it too fearful,” he explained. “But the reality is more nuanced. We need to understand these technologies as both powerful and deeply contextual.”
Jarrahi brings that balance to his teaching as well. “I love working with undergrads,” he said. “UNC is a public university, and educating North Carolinians through our undergraduate program is a major part of our mission. I try to prepare students not just for the tools of today but for the ways work will evolve tomorrow.”
Even as he leads and teaches in North Carolina, Jarrahi credits the iSchool with shaping the way he thinks. “Syracuse was the place that gave me a contextual understanding of technology. One of the biggest lessons I learned there was that technology doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It has to be understood within the organizations and communities it serves.”
That mindset still guides him. “The iSchool saw the future early,” he added. “They changed their name to the School of Information back in the ’80s—before the internet boom—because they saw where things were heading. That kind of vision matters.”
Today, Jarrahi’s own vision is helping shape how academics, organizations, and students make sense of an AI-infused world. “The future,” he said, quoting one of his favorite phrases, “is already here—it’s just unevenly distributed. Our job is to help people see it.”