Crediting AI to Enhance Job Satisfaction: AI Assistants as Distinct Organizational Performers

The increasing integration of artificial intelligence (AI) assistants into work processes has at the same time generated opportunities to enhance employee productivity, and raised challenges linked to the recognition of AI assistants’ involvement in work accomplishments. We highlight how the anthropomorphism of AI assistants—i.e., the extent to which they display human-like characteristics—can play a pivotal role in addressing these challenges. In Study 1 (N = 589), we show that using AI assistants diminishes employees’ job satisfaction through a reduction in psychological ownership. However, we find that attributing proper credit to an AI assistant for its contributions moderates this effect, leading to improved job satisfaction. In Study 2 (N = 189), using mixed reality technology, we find that anthropomorphic AI assistants receive a greater share of the credit from employees than their non-anthropomorphic counterparts, thus opening the door to crediting AI and to the downstream beneficial effects of crediting. We discuss the implications for management theory and stress the importance of developing anthropomorphic AI assistants that can be recognized as distinct organizational performers to collective output, warranting proper credit for their role.