Fade or Fate: Transformative Research from AI Coding to Agentic Commerce
J. Leon Zhao
School of Management and Economics
Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen)
Abstract
This talk explores the transformative arc from AI coding—where large language models autonomously generate, debug, and document code—to agentic commerce, where intelligent agents execute purchases, negotiations, and logistics on behalf of users through natural language. Both domains exemplify a deeper shift toward human-AI symbiosis in the generative AI era: moving from tool-use to co-creation, where decision-making, creativity, and trust are jointly constructed. This transformation reshapes business operations, employee training, and agentic workflows. Organizations must redesign supply chains, customer service, and dispute resolution to accommodate autonomous agents that search, compare, select, and transact.
The IS community is confronted with two primary sets of challenges. First, there are transformative issues related to managing intra- and inter-organizational responsibilities concerning staff retraining and human-AI collaboration in the era of generative AI. Second, there are technical problems that must be resolved to harmonize agility with accountability. By examining the relevant socio-technical implications, IS researchers can help shape its trajectory of becoming a sustainable innovation with far-reaching impacts on the future of work and learning. The talk concludes with a provocative question: will firms resist agentic transformation fade, or can proactive adoption of governance frameworks, trust calibration, and interdisciplinary research shape a more desirable fate?
Biography
J. Leon Zhao is a Chair Professor of Information Systems, Director of Center on Blockchain and Intelligent Technology, Founding Co-head of Information Systems and Operations Management (2022-2026), School of Management and Economics, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen. He holds a Ph.D. from University of California at Berkeley and was a chair professor at the City University of Hong Kong and Eller Professor at the University of Arizona. He is a founding co-editor of Financial Innovation, a Springer OpenAccess journal and has co-edited over 20 special issues for academic journals including MIS Quarterly, Information Systems Research, Journal of Operations Management, and Decision Support Systems. Dr. Zhao is the founder of International Conference on Smart Finance, a co-founder of China Summer Workshop on Information Management, and has chaired over 30 conferences covering such fields as Information Systems, Service Sciences, FinTech, and Blockchain. He received an IBM Faculty Award in 2005, and the Chang Jiang Scholar Chair Professorship first at Tsinghua University in 2009 and then the Chang Jiang Scholar Chair Professorship again at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen in 2022. He was selected for the AIS Fellow Award by the Association of Information Systems in 2025.