Human-centered design of artificial intelligence as the key to motivation and acceptance: An experimental investigation in the context of personnel scheduling

Abstract The present study examines the psychological effects of human-centered artificial intelligence in personnel scheduling, which are mediated by satisfying the three basic needs of autonomy, competence and social relatedness as well as usefulness and ease of use as criteria for technology acceptance. In an experimental between-subjects design ( N = 231), an artificial intelligence with high vs. low human-centricity was presented to the participants. The results show that human-centered artificial intelligence has positive effects on work motivation, job satisfaction, psychological well-being and affective commitment. These effects were partly influenced by basic psychological needs (esp. autonomy), partly mediated by factors of technology acceptance: usefulness had a consistent effect, ease of use selective effects. Sequential pathways showed that autonomy is related to the evaluation of usefulness and the experience of competence is related to the ease-of-use perception; for social realtedness, there were positive but mixed findings. Overall, it is clear that artificial intelligence has positive effects when it systematically takes work design principles into account. Practical Relevance : In practice, this means that acceptance is not primarily achieved through training employees, but through the adaptation of artificial intelligence to their needs. Development and implementation processes should anchor occupational psychology knowledge as design goals and test it in prototypes at an early stage.