Hope or Fear of AI? Career Adaptability Drives Reskilling Intentions in Urban Indonesia

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-709-5_147How to use a DOI?

Keywords

AI opportunity appraisal; AI threat appraisal; career adaptability; organisational learning culture; reskilling intention

Abstract

AI driven work transformation is accelerating in Indonesia’s large cities, yet a persistent conceptual gap remains in explaining why some employees respond with proactive reskilling while others become inhibited by perceived disruption, even when national AI ambitions and organisational training initiatives are visible. Grounded in career construction theory and an opportunity threat appraisal lens, this study examines how perceived AI opportunity and perceived AI threat shape reskilling intention through career adaptability, and whether organisational learning culture strengthens the translation of adaptability into reskilling intention. Using a time lag two wave online survey of 425 urban employees across major Indonesian cities, the hypothesised model was tested using PLS SEM. The findings indicate that perceived AI opportunity increases reskilling intention both directly and indirectly by strengthening career adaptability, whereas perceived AI threat reduces reskilling intention mainly by weakening career adaptability, confirming adaptability as the core transmission mechanism from AI appraisals to learning oriented action. Organisational learning culture strengthens the adaptability to reskilling relationship, suggesting that supportive learning environments amplify the behavioural expression of individual resources rather than acting as a standalone driver. The study advances the micro foundations of AI workforce readiness and offers actionable guidance for managers to prioritise opportunity focused communication, build adaptability, and remove structural barriers to learning. Limitations include self reported intention measures and an urban sampling frame. Future research should track observed reskilling behaviour longitudinally and test additional boundary conditions such as job redesign and perceived fairness in AI deployment.

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  - Qin Hongtao
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/06/20
TI  - Hope or Fear of AI? Career Adaptability Drives Reskilling Intentions in Urban Indonesia
BT  - Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Accounting, Management, and Economics (10th ICAME 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 2106
EP  - 2123
SN  - 2352-5428
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-709-5_147
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-709-5_147
ID  - Hongtao2026
ER  -