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Relying on AI at work reduces self-efficacy, ownership, and meaning while active collaboration mitigates the effects
Elena Hayoung Lee1, Yidan Yin2, Nan Jia3
1Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90089, USA. Elena.Lee@marshall.usc.edu.
Scientific Reports
|March 16, 2026
Summary
How artificial intelligence (AI) is used matters. Passive AI use harms worker self-efficacy and meaning, while active collaboration preserves these crucial elements, impacting job satisfaction.
Area of Science:
- Human-Computer Interaction
- Organizational Psychology
- Workplace Technology
Background:
- Artificial intelligence (AI) offers significant productivity gains but raises concerns about its impact on the human-work relationship.
- Historical parallels with industrialization highlight potential threats to work connection and meaning due to technological advancements.
- The critical factor in AI's impact is not its presence, but the manner of its integration into work processes.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how different modes of AI utilization influence workers' self-efficacy, sense of ownership, and perceived work meaningfulness.
- To compare the psychological outcomes of passive AI use (copying AI output) versus active AI collaboration (human-AI drafting).
- To assess the long-term effects of AI use modes on workers' psychological connection to their tasks.
Main Methods:
- A pre-registered experiment (N=269) and a follow-up survey (N=270) were conducted.
- Participants engaged in occupation-specific writing tasks under three conditions: no AI, passive AI use, or active AI collaboration.
- A complementary real-world survey examined AI's effects across various non-writing tasks.
Main Results:
- Passive AI use significantly decreased self-efficacy, psychological ownership, and work meaningfulness, with lasting negative effects.
- Active AI collaboration maintained psychological connection to tasks, yielding results comparable to independent work.
- Initial boosts in satisfaction from passive AI use were reversed upon returning to manual work.
Conclusions:
- The psychological impact of AI is contingent upon its integration into human workflows.
- Strategies emphasizing active, collaborative AI use can harness productivity benefits while safeguarding worker agency, competence, and job connection.
- Understanding and implementing appropriate AI integration is crucial for maintaining worker well-being and engagement.
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