From Interaction to Involution: Human-AI Interaction and Employee Work Involution

Human–AI interaction (HAI) has become increasingly embedded in contemporary organizations. Drawing on social comparison theory and cognitive appraisal theory of stress, this study examines whether and how HAI intensifies employee work involution. Using three-wave survey data collected from 1,309 employees, we find that HAI significantly increases employee work involution. This effect is stronger for continuous HAI than for intermittent HAI. Mediation analyses show that perceived technological substitution partially mediates this relationship. Moreover, human-AI trust negatively moderates the relationship between HAI and perceived technological substitution, but does not significantly moderate the relationship between perceived technological substitution and work involution. Heterogeneity analyses reveal that the involution effect is more pronounced among employees with positive attitudes toward AI, higher perceptions of AI anthropomorphism, and those working under AI supervisors. This study contributes to the literature on HAI by identifying work involution as a critical form of technological alienation.