We can summarise much of what is known about organisational decision making as follows. Human unaided decision making is frail and subject to error. Economically rational organisations seek to maximise utility for owners and protect themselves from the self-serving behaviours of their stewards. Organisations have sought to deploy decision aids since the 1980s with mixed success. Recent advances in automation support decision making across a range of contexts, processing information with a tireless impartiality. Technology deployment is a dialectic of accommodation and resistance between material and human agency.

Predicated on the foregoing, the question to be answered is simply this: given recent advances in automation where and to what extent should leaders consider deploying machines to support decision making in large organisations?

We conduct a narrative literature review before using an abductive framework to perform qualitative fieldwork – interviewing 25 senior leaders from large organisations. The resultant transcripts provide unique insight into the knowledge, attitude, and practice of such leaders.

We highlight that data fuels the automation of decision making, that human judgement and experience will continue to be valued in relation to high-stakes decisions, and finally, that accommodation and resistance will increasingly be subject to factors external to organisations.

We use our findings to build a dynamic model for practice centred around three decision zones.

Our work makes a theoretical contribution by reframing multi-disciplinary discourse considering recent advances in automation. We make a methodological contribution by answering Bailey & Barley’s (2020) call to gain insight into the interests and agendas of those responsible for automation decisions. Finally, we make a practical contribution by supporting leaders to determine where to deploy automated decision-making solutions to greatest effect. We refine our model through feedback from two of the world’s leading advisory firms.