Is it a stress Buffer or a Cognitive Catalyst?--Deconstructing the Double-Edged Sword Effect of AI Consciousness on Employee Adaptive Performance

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-699-9_4How to use a DOI?

Keywords

AI challenge awareness; AI threat awareness; adaptive performance

Abstract

Against the backdrop of the widespread application of artificial intelligence (AI) technology in the workplace, employees’ cognition and attitudes toward AI—namely AI awareness—have increasingly become a key factor affecting their work adaptability. Based on the cognitive appraisal theory of stress, this study distinguishes AI awareness into challenge awareness and threat awareness, and explores their dual-edged effects on employees’ adaptive performance. Through a questionnaire survey collecting 350 valid responses, the results show that AI challenge awareness significantly and positively predicts adaptive performance, whereas AI threat awareness significantly and negatively affects adaptive performance. This reveals that individuals’ cognitive appraisals of AI technology application—viewing it as either a challenge or a threat—constitute an important mechanism influencing their adaptive behaviors. The study not only enriches the theoretical understanding of the antecedents of adaptive performance but also provides practical insights for organizations on how to guide employees’ perceptions and implement effective interventions during AI transformation.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Guohong Deng
AU  - Li Hui
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/06/02
TI  - Is it a stress Buffer or a Cognitive Catalyst?--Deconstructing the Double-Edged Sword Effect of AI Consciousness on Employee Adaptive Performance
BT  - Proceedings of the 2026 4th International Conference on Digital Economy and Management Science (CDEMS 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 20
EP  - 28
SN  - 2352-5428
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-699-9_4
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-699-9_4
ID  - Deng2026
ER  -