Stakeholder roles in artificial intelligence projects

Algorithmic decision-making implemented through artificial intelligence (AI) projects is augmenting or replacing human decision-making across numerous industries. Although AI systems may impact individuals and society in life-and-death situations, project organizations or plans may ignore the concerns of the passive stakeholders. This research describes the components, lifecycle, and characteristics of AI projects. It employs stakeholder theory and a systematic literature review with thematic analysis to identify and classify individuals, groups, and organizations into six stakeholder project roles. It configures the stakeholder salience model with a harm attribute to identify passive stakeholders—individuals affected by AI systems but powerless to affect the project—and their nexus to the project. The study contributes a novel method for identifying passive stakeholders and highlights the need to engage developers, operators, and representatives of passive stakeholders to achieve moral, ethical, and sustainable development. •The study provides descriptive information on artificial intelligence projects, including the life cycle, project characteristics, project roles, and stakeholders.•It highlights how artificial intelligence projects differ from other projects based on the harms, damages, and losses they can impose on individuals, society, and the environment.•It underscores why project owners, project managers, project teams, and operational organizations are moral agents responsible for the systems they develop.•It identifies passive and representative stakeholder roles that should be considered by project managers and sponsors in the early stages of planning to account for, include, and engage stakeholders.•It demonstrates an innovative use of applying the stakeholder salience model's harm and urgency attributes to identify and classify project stakeholders.