Can AI really help? The double-edged sword effect of AI assistant on employees’ innovation behavior

With artificial intelligence (AI) replacing humans at work, creative work is becoming increasingly important for humans. Although AI may improve employees' innovation behavior, some evidence suggests a negative effect through employees' psychological well-being. To address these contradictory arguments, this study investigated the double-edged sword effect of AI-assistant intelligence on employees' innovation behavior based on the transactional model of stress. Two scenario-based experiments reveal that an AI assistant characterized as high intelligence has a positive indirect effect on employees' AI-enabled innovation behavior via creative self-efficacy, while the indirect effect is stronger when organizational AI readiness is higher than when it is lower. However, the same AI assistance has a negative indirect effect on employees’ AI-enabled innovation behavior via STARA awareness when organizational AI readiness is low. These findings have pivotal implications for both management theory and practice. •AI assistant is a double-edged sword for employees' innovation behavior.•Helping to resolve contradictory arguments about the consequences of AI in the workplace.•Mediating effect of creative self-efficacy and STARA awareness coexist.•Moderating effect of organizational AI readiness on employees' cognitive processes to AI.•Enriching antecedents of creative self-efficacy and STARA awareness from the view of AI characteristics.