Augmentation technologies are undergoing a process of enculturation due to many factors, one being the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), or what the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) terms the AI wave or AI boom. Chapter 3 focuses critical attention on the hyped assumption that sophisticated, emergent, and embodied augmentation technologies will improve lives, literacy, cultures, arts, economies, and social contexts. The chapter begins by discussing the problem of ambiguity with AI terminology, which it aids with a description of the WIPO Categorization of AI Technologies Scheme. It then draws on media and communication studies to explore concepts such as agents, agency, power, and agentive relationships between humans and robots. The chapter focuses on the development of non-human agents in industry as a critical factor in the rise of augmentation technologies. It looks at how marketing communication enculturates future users to adopt and adapt to the technology. Scholars are charting the significant ways that people are drawn further into commercial digital landscapes, such as the Metaverse concept, in post-internet society. It concludes by examining recent claims concerning the Metaverse and augmented reality.

As consumers and employees integrate more of their lives into one intelligence-amplifying human augmentation, organizations will have to address issues of data transparency, privacy and autonomy. Security: Human augmentation technologies must achieve and maintain a known and acceptable state of security-related risk. This risk is across an attack surface that's no longer tied to a specific device or physical location, but may travel with the human subject. Privacy: Human augmentation provides the ability to access intimate knowledge and data about the human it's enhancing. That data must be protected.

AI and related technologies are most effective when used as a way to unleash creativity and increase autonomy in workers. The study was done by researchers at Goldsmiths, University of London, and commissioned by robotic process automation vendor Automation Anywhere. Released in September, the study looked at the role and impact of automation in the workplace, focusing on two "augmentation" technologies: Among the findings: Not only do enterprises that invest in augmented human intelligence promote a "more human workplace," but workplaces with cultures that foster learning also do technology augmentation more successfully. "The key [to success] was to invest in technology and people," said Mihir Shukla, CEO of Automation Anywhere. "Technology investment is straightforward," he added.