Navigating workplace AI adoption: The influence of perceptions and affective attitudes on employees’ intentions to use AI at work

Abstract

This study investigates employees’ perceptions of artificial intelligence (AI) in the workplace, using data from 1,224 working adults across two samples. Drawing from an extended version of the Technology Acceptance Model, we examine how employees’ trust in AI and their perceptions of AI’s usefulness and ease-of-use at work shape their affective attitudes toward using AI, which in turn influence their intentions to adopt AI in their job. Perceived usefulness and trust in AI predicted employees’ intentions to adopt it at work via affective attitudes toward using AI. The findings for perceived ease-of-use were inconsistent, suggesting potential workplace-specific implications of this pathway. None of the relationships differed by gender, education, or leadership status. The findings bridge the technology adoption and organizational science literature to offer theoretical insights, practical implications, and future research directions for facilitating employees’ intentions to adopt AI at work.