September 11, 2025

AI at Work: Opportunity or Threat?

Icon/Tag/16px Research

As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to reshape the workplace, the question is no longer whether it will affect careers but how individuals will respond. In their timely and thought-provoking study, Julian Voigt (TUM) and Karoline Strauss (ESSEC Business School) explore the psychological mechanisms that determine whether AI is perceived as a threat or an opportunity.

Their research reveals a critical factor in this equation: the capacity to let go of outdated career goals and embrace new ones, a trait known as goal reengagement capacity.

 

The Initial Situation: AI as a Career Disruptor

AI is rapidly transforming industries, automating tasks, and redefining job roles. While some workers see AI as a tool for innovation and growth, others fear job displacement and skill obsolescence. This duality has created a landscape of uncertainty, where career optimism, a key driver of motivation and well-being, is under threat.

Voigt and Strauss begin by identifying a gap in existing research: while career optimism is known to be influenced by goal clarity and persistence, the ability to reengage with new goals in response to disruption has been largely overlooked. They argue that in an AI-driven world, rigid adherence to outdated career paths may hinder optimism, while flexibility and adaptability may foster resilience.

 

The Findings: Goal Reengagement as a Buffer

Across two experimental studies, one with business students and another with full-time employees, the authors tested how interactions with AI (via ChatGPT) influenced perceptions of threat and career optimism. Their key findings include:

  • Perceived threat from AI is a significant predictor of reduced career optimism.
  • Goal reengagement capacities moderate this relationship:
  • Individuals with low goal reengagement capacities feel more threatened by AI and show lower career optimism.
  • Individuals with high goal reengagement capacities are better able to reinterpret AI as an opportunity, maintaining or even increasing career optimism.

This moderated mediation model was supported in both studies, though more strongly among full-time employees, suggesting that real-world experience may enhance the benefits of goal reengagement.

 

The Potential Implications: Rethinking Career Support

The study’s implications are profound for both individuals and organizations:

  • For individuals, cultivating goal reengagement capacities can be a powerful tool for navigating technological change. This involves not just setting new goals, but emotionally and cognitively committing to them.
  • For organizations, supporting employees in developing these capacities, through coaching, mentoring, and adaptive work environments, can foster a resilient workforce ready to embrace AI.
  • For leaders, modeling flexibility and encouraging exploration of alternative career paths can help mitigate fear and build a culture of innovation.

Importantly, the authors emphasize that goal reengagement is malleable. It can be nurtured through interventions, emotional support, and strategic career development initiatives.

The study offers a compelling framework for understanding how psychological flexibility can shape our response to AI. The research moves beyond the binary of fear versus excitement and introduces a nuanced view: that optimism in the age of AI is not just about what we know or do, but about how willing we are to let go and start anew.

 

To the study: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001879125000739?via%3Dihub 

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