New Techno-Stressors Among Knowledge Professionals: The Contribution of Artificial Intelligence and Websites that Misinform Clients

ABSTRACT Current measures of technostress do not consider some recent techno-stressors generated by information and communications technologies. Such stressors may affect knowledge professionals by challenging their credibility, such as insecurity induced by artificial intelligence and websites that misinform clients. This paper presents the development and validation of a 25-item self-report instrument (Techno-Stressors-Index; eight dimensions) based on established guidelines and including new and adapted dimensions of techno-stressors in a professional context. This study was conducted in four phases using a multimethod approach: qualitative exploratory ia pretest, a final validation using exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis, and the assessment of nomological validity by testing the relationship between reactions to techno-stressors and psychological distress. The results confirm the relevance of insecurity induced by artificial intelligence and of websites that misinform clients as contributing factors to the technostress process.