How Do Coworkers Interpret Employee AI Usage: Coworkers' Perceived Morality and Helping as Responses to Employee AI Usage

Abstract

Organizations are increasingly introducing artificial intelligence (AI) into the workplace and encouraging employees to use AI to complete work. Correspondingly, research on AI usage predominantly focuses on the positive effects of AI usage on employees themselves. Drawing upon attribution theory and AI literature and taking an interpersonal perspective, this research challenges the prevailing consensus by investigating whether, when, and how employee AI usage would lead to negative coworker outcomes. We propose that when coworkers attribute employee AI usage as a way to slack off (i.e., slack attribution), employee AI usage is negatively related to coworkers' perceived morality of the employee, which in turn decreases coworkers' helping behavior toward the employee. Two experimental studies, a field survey study, and a field experiment provide substantial support for our hypotheses. This research adds new insights into the AI usage literature by revealing the negative coworker outcomes of employee AI usage.