The power of framing AI: preliminary evidence on hybrid intelligence and future work perceptions

As generative AI diffuses across organisations, individuals encounter competing frames of AI as autonomous automation or human–AI collaboration. We examine framing as an early interpretive condition that may shape whether people understand AI as a replacement for human labour or as a collaborative system supporting human co-adaptation. Two exploratory experiments tested whether competing AI frames influence master's students' perceived automation risk and sensemaking about AI's role in future work. In Study 1, a randomised repeated-measures experiment with Business Intelligence students (N = 35), introducing a hybrid intelligence (HI) counter-frame after an AI-capability frame was associated with lower perceived job displacement expectations than in the control condition. In Study 2, a randomised framing-primacy workshop with Digital Design students, numeric automation estimates did not differ significantly (N = 31), but in the written-response sample (N = 35), participants exposed to an HI-first frame expressed significantly more augmentation-oriented interpretations of AI's role. The studies suggest that AI frames may influence perceived automation risk and the language used to make sense of human–AI collaboration. We discuss implications for managers and educators and position HI-TAM2 as a preliminary theoretical agenda for research on framing and contextual antecedents in HI acceptance rather than a validated model extension.