Puru works to understand how human-AI collaborative systems can effectively solve problems and innovate. In this line, he explores who these AI collaborators are that humans work with — how AI systems carry institutional logics from the social systems that produced them, and what that means for the settings they enter. His central thesis — that AI is a social entity equivalent to any other social entity — synthesizes Actor-Network Theory, the attention-based view of the firm, institutional logics, and economic sociology.
He is the author of “Nonhuman Attentional Control: Organizational Import of External Institutional Logics,” accepted at the Academy of Management Annual Meeting 2026 and presented as a pre-recorded talk, Session 22935. That work has evolved into a pre-registered study now underway.
Puru holds an M.S. in Management from the University of Oregon, with research focus on AI agency in organizations. Research conducted under the Intelligent Agency affiliation is independent of any other professional role he holds.