Choosing the New Workplace: The Impact of AI Use at Work on Telecommuting Voluntariness

Telecommuting has witnessed a remarkable surge in development, propelled by the advent of cutting-edge technologies and the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, there has been relatively limited research exploring how to motivate employees to voluntarily engage in telecommuting arrangements. Drawing on the social identity approach, this study delves into the influence of artificial intelligence (AI) use at work on an individual’s telecommuting voluntariness. Additionally, by integrating the perspective of flexibility stigma, we examine whether an individual’s perception of flexibility stigma can moderate the relationship above. In a time-lagged field study (Study 1) involving 218 employees in China, the results indicated that AI use at work was positively associated with telecommuting voluntariness through job virtuality. In a scenario experiment (Study 2) with 159 students from a large public university in China, we manipulated the variables of flexibility stigma and job virtuality. The findings supported our hypothesis that for participants with lower perceived flexibility stigma, job virtuality showed a significantly stronger positive relationship with telecommuting voluntariness, whereas for those with higher perceived flexibility stigma, this relationship was negated. Collectively, both studies illustrate that AI use at work can effectively promote telecommuting arrangements, particularly in organizations where the perception of flexibility stigma is relatively low.