Artificial Intelligence in the Workplace: Effects on Self-Efficacy, Self-Objectification and Beliefs in Free Will

Artificial intelligence (AI) has increasingly integrated into daily life, with numerous industries adopting AI-driven systems to enhance services and automate repetitive tasks. The present work examines for the first time the short-term effects of interacting with an AI-based agent in the work domain on self-efficacy, self-objectification and beliefs in free will. In the first and second studies, scenarios describing the process of evaluating candidates for a job position were used to test the effects of interacting with an AI agent (vs. a human recruiter) on self-efficacy, self-objectification and beliefs in free will. In the third study, the experimental manipulation was carried out by adopting a real AI-based recruiting system to foster greater ecological validity. Findings consistently show that being evaluated by an AI recruiter (vs. a human recruiter) significantly lowers self-efficacy beliefs and increases self-objectification, leading, in turn, to a reduction in beliefs in free will. These results provide new insights into the workplace's self-objectification process, indicating how it might be triggered during interactions with modern AI technologies. Considerations on adopting AI technologies in the work domain are discussed, emphasising the need for AI systems to support, rather than replace, human agency.