Towards a new paradigm of management control: from assistant AI to autonomous AI supervised by humans - Literature review and bibliometric analysis

Abstract

This paper presents a structured literature review and bibliometric analysis aimed at exploring how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping the tools, practices, and roles within the management control function. Drawing from a corpus of 57 peer-reviewed articles extracted from the Web of Science database,  published between 2010 and the first half of 2025, t and selected through the PRISMA protocol, he study uncovers key research trends, conceptual developments, and the main challenges surrounding AI adoption in management accounting and control. The reseach problem statement guiding this study is as follows : To what extent does AI generate a paradigmatic shift in management control, and how does it redefine the role of the controller ? The bibliometric findings highlight both the growing academic interest in the topic and its exploratory, yet fragmented, nature. The results show that AI enhances the management control function  through significant improvements of its tools through automation, predictive capabilities and more intercative decision-making, and offers the potential to transform its scope. Beyond these evolutions, AI opens the way for a more material revolution and for a significant paradigm shift from an augmented controller supported by digial tools to the prospect of semi-autonomous AI agents supervised by controllers. The paper concludes that this transformation remains underexplored and calls for future research on its theoritical, methodological and ethical implications for the management control function.

Classification JEL : G00, M10, O32

Paper type : Theoretical Research