The Impact of AI on Perceived Job Decency and Meaningfulness: A Case Study

TL;DR

This study investigates how AI influences perceptions of job decency and meaningfulness in IT workplaces, revealing that humans are viewed as still central and AI as a complement, potentially enhancing job satisfaction.

Contribution

It provides qualitative insights into employee perceptions of AI's role in maintaining or improving job meaningfulness and decency, an area less explored in existing research.

Findings

Humans are seen as still central in AI-augmented workplaces.

AI is perceived as a complement, not a replacement, for human workers.

AI may maintain or increase overall job satisfaction.

Abstract

The proliferation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in workplaces stands to change the way humans work, with job satisfaction intrinsically linked to work life. Existing research on human-AI collaboration tends to prioritize performance over the experiential aspects of work. In contrast, this paper explores the impact of AI on job decency and meaningfulness in workplaces. Through interviews in the Information Technology (IT) domain, we not only examined the current work environment, but also explored the perceived evolution of the workplace ecosystem with the introduction of an AI. Findings from the preliminary exploratory study reveal that respondents tend to visualize a workplace where humans continue to play a dominant role, even with the introduction of advanced AIs. In this prospective scenario, AI is seen as serving as a complement rather than replacing the human workforce. Furthermore, respondents believe that the introduction of AI will maintain or potentially increase overall job satisfaction.