EXAMINING EMPLOYEES’ EMOTIONS TOWARDS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI): A QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

In this study, we aimed to investigate employees’ perspectives on artificial intelligence (AI) and understand their opinions and emotions regarding the future advancements of AI and its potential impacts on their work lives. We conducted a qualitative study using an inductive approach and a phenomenological research design. We employed purposive sampling methods to select 20 participants from various sectors for interviews to achieve this goal. We utilized content analysis with the MAXQDA 2024 program, followed by descriptive and relational analyses of the categories and codes we obtained. Our research showed that the most common emotion among participants regarding their encounters with AI was ‘astonishment.’ We discovered that the participants had mixed feelings towards AI, including positive emotions such as happiness, curiosity, admiration, and excitement, and negative emotions such as anxiety, fear, anger, frustration, and distrust. Our study showed that respondents were most surprised and happiest about how AI makes life easier and more convenient and how its speed gives people more time for their personal lives. Conversely, the factors that caused the most concern and fear among participants were the potential for mass unemployment due to AI and the risk of encouraging laziness in people. Many of them believe that AI has the potential to bring significant advantages to humanity, particularly in fields such as healthcare, the environment, and the economy. However, there is also a growing concern and fear around the possibility that AI could spiral out of control, be utilized in biological, chemical, and technological warfare, and result in widespread unemployment.