How does human-AI interaction affect employees' workplace procrastination?

Based on the conservation of resources (COR) theory, this study examined the mechanisms by which human-AI interaction influences employees' workplace procrastination and the mediating role of boredom and the moderating role of core self-evaluation. Two studies were conducted to test the hypothesized model. In Study 1, human-AI interactions were categorized into enhanced and impeded. Enhanced human-AI interaction is the degree to which the employee perceives that the employee is leading the work and that the AI assists the work, whereas impeded human-AI interaction is the degree to which the employee perceives that the AI is leading the work and that the employee assists the work. We developed a two-dimensional human-AI interaction scale with eight items. In Study 2, we tested our hypotheses by collecting data from 411 questionnaires in China. Both types of human-AI interaction significantly affected boredom and workplace procrastination. Boredom mediated both types of human-AI interaction and workplace procrastination. Core self-evaluation not only moderated the effects of both types of human-AI interaction on boredom but also moderated the mediating role of boredom. This study has significant implications for both the theoretical understanding of human-AI interaction and its practical applications in organizational management.