Infrastructural Intelligence as Sociotechnical Institution

Cloud-native AI tools are impactful in the automation of cognition and organization decision making. This chapter is directed at advancing the sociological concept of infrastructural intelligence that explains how the cloud-based infrastructures of cognitive automation get intertwined, reshaping labor, governance, and global power. This chapter is anchored in the studies of sociotechnical systems, labor process theory, platform capitalism, datafication, and global inequality, and argues that the cloud-native AI represents a change in the infrastructure of automation: moving from isolated, algorithmic processes to extensive, codified, and worldwide systems of cognition. Evidence from logistics, finance, manufacturing, digital labor, and public governance is brought together to show how cloud-native AI is transforming work and at the same time sustaining geopolitical imbalances. The chapter presents a sociological perspective for understanding cloud-native AI and finally points out the ethical, environmental, and labor aspects that should be considered in future research.