Examining the influence of AI event strength on employee performance outcomes: Roles of AI rumination, AI-supported autonomy, and felt obligation for constructive change

Although previous research has examined the effects of adopting artificial intelligence (AI)-empowered service robots in the hospitality industry, these robots’ effects on employees’ performance outcomes have generally been overlooked. By integrating event system theory with theory of cognitive–affective processing systems, we classified deploying service robots at work as a high-strength event and investigated the effect of AI event strength on employees’ adaptive performance through cognitive and affective processes and the moderating effects of AI-supported autonomy. We conducted a study of 508 employees at leading integrated resorts in Macau and found that AI event strength results in employee AI rumination and felt obligation for constructive change (FOCC) with countervailing effects on job crafting and, subsequently, their adaptive performance. Meanwhile, AI-supported autonomy strengthened the serial indirect relationship between AI event strength on adaptive performance through FOCC but weakened this indirect relationship via AI rumination. Our research highlighted the mechanisms involved in employee proactivity and adaptability in responding to AI.