Thinking Skills Don’t Protect Service Workers from Replacement by Artificial Intelligence
研究了在服务行业中，从事思考型任务（相比情感型任务）的员工在人工智能出现时，因感知能力相对下降而产生更强的被替代恐惧和更差的工作表现，且这种效应仅发生在员工与AI比较能力时。
Despite the documented benefits of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to the service industry, the service employees’ fear of being replaced by AI continues to be a major concern as we transition to the Feeling Economy. This paper builds upon the Feeling Economy framework and the social comparison theory to examine how different service-related tasks (thinking vs feeling) distinctively impact the service employees’ feelings and behavior. Five studies reveal that the presence of AI increases negative outcomes for employees engaging in thinking (vs. feeling) tasks due to its adverse effects on their perceived ability (i.e., relative performance). Findings further indicate that these detrimental effects only happen when service employees compare their abilities with those of AI. This research provides important theoretical and managerial implications, helping to mitigate AI’s negative outcomes on employees’ fear of replacement and reduced job performance.