The Human-Tech Skill Complementarity Conceptual Framework (D1.1) is a vital step towards understanding the critical interplay between human skills and emerging digital technologies, focusing on the ‘affordance gap’—the disconnect between how new technologies are intended to be used versus how they are used in practice.

The co-evolution of human skills and technology

The main goal is to enhance our understanding of how human skills and new digital technologies can complement one another, and how these interactions can evolve over time. Unlike the conventional ‘man vs machine’ debate, TechConnect embraces a co-evolutionary view of human-technology relationships, highlighting the ways in which both can adapt and improve together.

Through this framework, we aim to break down barriers between disciplines, moving beyond static models to capture the dynamic nature of human-tech interactions. This is essential for fostering sustainable, impactful human-technology collaborations that are beneficial both in organisational and societal contexts.

Building knowledge from the ground up

To support the development of the framework the research team conducted a systematic and iterative literature review. Using targeted search strategies and cross-referencing techniques they analysed multidisciplinary sources across major databases such as Web of Science and Scopus. This approach ensured that only high-quality and relevant studies were used, allowing a deep and profound understanding.

To build the foundation for this framework, the TechConnect research team undertook a systematic and iterative literature review. By using targeted search strategies and cross-referencing techniques, we analysed multidisciplinary sources from top databases such as Web of Science and Scopus, ensuring that we used only the most relevant and high-quality studies. This in-depth process has allowed us to gain a profound understanding of how human skills and technologies interact in real-world settings.

Key Highlights from the framework

As digital transformation continues to reshape industries, the Human-Tech Skill Complementarity Framework provides several key insights, particularly valuable for leaders, policymakers, and researchers looking to harness the potential of human-technology synergy

• Bridging conceptual gaps: The framework resolves inconsistencies between disciplines, offering a more fluid, dynamic understanding of how human-tech relationships evolve. It moves beyond static models, capturing the shifting nature of technology adoption and skill development.
• Five-level analysis: Our framework uses a multi-level approach, assessing human-technology interactions across five key dimensions: task, role, team, organisation, and mission. The healthcare sector is a primary focus, but the findings are applicable across a variety of industries.
• Affordance-based assessment: By introducing an affordance-based evaluation model, the framework offers a new way to measure how humans and technology work together in practice. This forms the foundation for the Human-Tech Skill Complementarity Index, a tool that will allow for more precise, data-driven insights into human-tech interactions.

Why this matters

The Human-Tech Skill Complementarity Framework is a timely and essential resource for anyone involved in the digital transformation of industries. As more organisations adopt advanced technologies, understanding how these tools integrate with human capabilities will be key to unlocking their full potential.

This framework offers a groundbreaking, holistic approach to studying human-tech collaboration—a topic that has not been explored in such depth before. It will be a guiding tool for future research, helping shape policy, training, and workplace practices to support a more effective and inclusive digital workforce.

Through ongoing case studies and cross-sector collaboration, the TechConnect project will continue to refine and expand upon these insights, ensuring that both human and technological skills evolve together to meet the demands of tomorrow’s workforce.