When Bots Join the Team: Bot Adoption and the Institutional Fabric of Open-Source Software Projects

Researchers analyzed 2,991 GitHub projects to determine if AI agents strengthen or weaken group organization when acting as participants rather than tools. By studying two years before and after the first bot adoption, the study evaluates three capabilities linked to durable coordination: social memory, repeated engagement, and role differentiation. The research specifically monitors how bots opening pull requests, reviewing code, and merging changes impact two key outcomes: output distinctiveness and the occurrence of conflict cascades.