AI awareness relates to university students’ boundaryless career through the parallel mediation of intrinsic motivation and future job insecurity

The in-depth penetration of artificial intelligence (AI) technology has reshaped career forms and the structure of the labor market, exerting a profound impact on university students’ cognition and orientation towards career development. Based on the conservation of resources theory and self-determination theory, we conducted three studies—an experimental study and two survey studies—to explore correlational linkages between AI awareness and university students’ boundaryless career. Studies 1 and 3 consistently demonstrated that AI awareness is indirectly associated with boundaryless career through the parallel mediating pathways of intrinsic motivation and future job insecurity. Study 2 provided experimental evidence that heightened AI awareness increases both intrinsic motivation and future job insecurity. This research enriches the application scenarios of boundaryless career theory in the context of technological change, deepens the understanding of the mechanism linking technological perception to youth career psychology, and offers practical implications for career guidance in universities.