Description
The use of AI in the workplace has resulted in significant benefits for a variety of industries. As AI capability grows and the gap between human and machine intelligence narrows, AI is expected to expand into new industries and disrupt the human labor market, potentially causing individuals to feel job insecurity. Research has examined the impact of technology on the workforce, but newer studies focusing on more advanced technology (e.g., AI and robotics) and its influence on job insecurity is limited. This study helped to fill this gap by testing potential moderators, such as demographic and job characteristics, on the relationship between perceived AI threat and feelings of job insecurity. Additionally, a new construct relating to technology use was introduced and tested as a moderator of this relationship. Finally, this study evaluated measurement differences between the use of latent and composite variables in moderation analyses. Archival data from the Pew Research Center’s “Gaming, Jobs and Broadband” survey was used, which contains measures of 2,001 individuals across the United States. Only respondents who were employed were included in the study, resulting in a final sample size of 1,100 respondents. Results showed that perceived AI threat was positively related to job insecurity. Additionally, education and manual labor moderated the relationship between AI threat and job insecurity. Specifically, the relationship was stronger for manual laborers and for those with lower levels of education. No other moderation hypotheses were supported. Lastly, results showed that the use of latent variable models yielded larger moderation coefficients but also larger standard errors compared to composite variable models, suggesting greater accuracy but lower precision. This study contributed to the understanding of AI’s impact on employee outcomes by examining how various contextual factors affect the relationship between perceived AI threat and job insecurity. Given the gap in literature examining AI’s effect on job insecurity, more research is needed to identify additional factors that shape this relationship and to better understand the practical implications that result for employees.
