Abstract

As the world is at the beginning of a Fourth Industrial Revolution, using and applying artificial intelligence (AI) has become a significant task for organizations and individuals. In this study, based on the technology acceptance model and literature on trust at organizations, we investigated factors that influence employees’ intention to use AI. We hypothesized that perceived usefulness of AI and trust would increase employees’ intention to use AI, and examined the role of perceived organizational support on the effects of perceived usefulness on trust. Using an experimental study, we found that Korean employees with high levels of perceived usefulness of AI reported higher levels of cognitive trust and affective trust than their counterparts. Cognitive trust and affective trust fully mediated the effects of perceived usefulness of AI on intention to use it, and the effects remained significant even after accounting for the effects of age, gender, and prior experience of using AI. We also found that perceived organizational support moderated the effect of perceived usefulness of AI on affective trust such that its effect was positive only for those with low perceived organizational support. For those with high perceived organizational support, affective trust toward AI did not vary depending on perceived usefulness of AI. Based on these findings, we discussed implications, limitations, and recommendations for future research.