From Industry 4.0 to Industry 5.0 in Sustainable Operations Management: AI-Driven, Human-Centric and Resilient Pathways

Dear Colleagues,

Artificial Intelligence is becoming the cornerstone in the transition from Industry 4.0 to Industry 5.0, fundamentally reshaping how operations management is conceived and implemented. Beyond process automation and optimization, AI now enables predictive, prescriptive and adaptive decision-making, fostering not only efficiency but also resilience, sustainability and human-centric innovation.

This Special Issue aims to explore how AI-driven approaches are transforming operations management and how their integration with enabling technologies can support the transition toward Industry 5.0.

More specifically, we seek to examine how human–AI collaboration creates new forms of organizational intelligence that transcend traditional automation paradigms.

Distinctive Focus Areas

This Special Issue distinguishes itself by emphasizing three interconnected dimensions:

1. AI as Relational Co-Agent in Operations

Moving beyond the tool-versus-threat dichotomy, we explore AI as a cognitive partner in decision-making processes. This includes the following:

• Hybrid human–AI decision architectures that reduce both operational downtime and cognitive overload;
• Explainable and ethical AI frameworks that support authentic collaboration;
• Case studies demonstrating co-agency in production planning, quality control and supply chain orchestration.

2. Resilience as Adaptive Socio-Technical Ecology

We expand resilience beyond technical robustness to encompass systemic adaptability within networks where supply chains, technologies and human actors interact dynamically:

• Transformative resilience indices that measure organizational capacity for evolution;
• AI-driven relational decision-making that strengthens network-level responsiveness;
• Integration with circular economy models and resource regeneration strategies.

3. Governance and Organizational Transformation

Addressing the managerial, organizational and societal dimensions of AI adoption at scale:

• Skills development and capacity building as evolving learning ecosystems;
• Governance frameworks for hybrid intelligence systems;
• Ethical considerations in AI Act compliance and responsible innovation;
• Human-centric approaches to AI implementation that preserve organizational culture while enabling transformation.

Call for Contributions

We invite original research, systematic reviews and industrial case studies addressing the following:

• AI-enabled decision-making in production and supply chain management, including predictive maintenance, optimization and adaptive scheduling.
• Integration of AI with digital twins, simulation, and advanced analytics to enhance resilience and sustainability.
• Human-AI collaboration and the role of explainable and ethical AI in supporting human-centric manufacturing and service systems, with emphasis on co-decisional architectures and cognitive partnership models.
• AI-driven innovation in sustainable operations, circular economy models and resource efficiency, including systemic resilience and adaptive socio-technical networks.
• Managerial, organizational and societal challenges in adopting AI at scale, including:
• Skills development and capacity building as learning ecosystems;
• Governance frameworks for hybrid human–AI systems;
• Ethical frameworks and AI Act readiness;
• Change management in human–AI organizational transformation.
• Emerging methodologies for measuring and optimizing human–AI collaboration effectiveness, including novel KPIs for relational intelligence and adaptive resilience.

Why This Special Issue Matters

By emphasizing the relational dimension of AI in operations management, this Special Issue positions itself at the intersection of:

• Technical excellence in smart manufacturing and Industry 5.0 technologies
• Cognitive innovation in understanding how human and artificial intelligence can amplify each other
• Systemic thinking that recognizes operations as evolving socio-technical ecosystems rather than merely optimizable processes

This comprehensive approach aims to stimulate debate and foster collaboration between academia and industry to guide the transition from Industry 4.0 to Industry 5.0, not as a purely technological evolution but as a transformation in how we conceive intelligence, agency, and collaboration in industrial systems.

We look forward to receiving your valuable contributions.

Dr. Marco Mosca
Prof. Dr. Flavio Tonelli
Dr. Federico Briatore
Dr. Paulo Peças
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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• Industry 5.0
• sustainable operations management
• human–AI collaboration
• relational intelligence
• digital twin
• resilience
• adaptive socio-technical networks
• circular economy
• supply chain transformation
• ethical AI
• cognitive partnership
• hybrid decision-making