ABSTRACT
This introduction positions AI as both a tool kit and a research paradigm reshaping social inquiry. It frames the “digital turn” as a context in which scale (big data), speed (streaming, real-time signals), and variety (text, image, networks, and sensors) exceed human analytic capacity, making AI indispensable for discovering complex patterns and augmenting theory. It also sets out core tensions – prediction versus explanation, correlation versus causation, and automation versus reflexive understanding – arguing for hybrid research designs that pair algorithmic breadth with qualitative depth. Ethical touchstones – fairness, transparency, accountability, and privacy – are introduced as nonnegotiables in AI-assisted scholarship. The chapter closes with a road map to the volume: foundational methods (ML/NLP), redesigned pipelines and data collection, field applications in management and psychology, methodological innovations in anthropology and sociology, and a forward-looking conclusion on epistemology, trust, and the identity of the social scientist in the age of AI.
