Technology as Transformation: Persistence of Expertise, Fragility of Trust, and Erosion of Accountability in Air Cargo Operations

As algorithmic systems increasingly mediate safety-critical work, questions arise about how expertise, trust, and accountability are changing. This study examines air cargo operations in Thailand, where professionals navigate varying levels of technological sophistication, from manual processes to advanced algorithmic systems. Through semi-structured interviews with six cargo professionals, analysed using the distributed cognition framework, the research reveals a central paradox: increasing technological sophistication demands greater human expertise whilst reducing organisational visibility. Three patterns emerge. Physical–digital gaps require continuous intervention yet remain organisationally invisible. Trust proves fragile, manifesting as calibrated scepticism, symbolic compliance, or axiological rejection. Answerability erodes as sophistication increases, with documentation functioning as a liability shield rather than a basis for learning. These findings demonstrate that the technology–expertise relationship is transformative rather than substitutive, and that institutional structures have not adapted to this transformation. The study contributes to sociotechnical scholarship by examining how distributed cognition operates across the technology adoption spectrum in safety-critical operational domains.