How and When Employee-AI Cooperation and Competition Influences Employees’ Career Behaviors

The adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in organizations is catalyzing transformations in human work. However, researchers have not reached a consensus on whether AI promotes or hinders employees’ career behaviors. Drawing on conservation of resources theory, we aim to examine how and when employee-AI task interdependence (i.e., cooperation and competition) influences employees’ career behaviors (i.e., career-oriented proactive behavior and career inaction). Using a novel eye-tracking experiment (N = 68) and a field study (N = 383), we found that employee-AI cooperation increased employees’ career-oriented proactive behavior via career adaptability, but employee-AI competition influenced employees’ career inaction via career insecurity. Furthermore, AI anthropomorphism weakened the positive relationship between employee-AI cooperation and career adaptability. AI anthropomorphism strengthened the positive relationship between employee-AI competition and career insecurity, thereby enhancing the mediating effect of career insecurity in the link between employee-AI competition and career inaction. Our research contributes to a more nuanced understanding of different kinds of employee-AI task interdependence (cooperation and competition) on employee career behaviors, shedding light on both the benefits and risks of AI adoption in the companies.