Put not down your hedge: exploring the impact of coworkers’ AI usage on employees’ knowledge hiding

In the workplace, AI usage has effectively improved the productivity and performance of organization members, but existing research has not addressed how coworkers’ AI usage might affect observers. Based on social comparison theory and cognitive-affective personality system theory, this study develops a theoretical model to examine the mechanisms through which service industry employees’ perceptions of coworkers’ AI usage influence their knowledge hiding behaviors. We find that perceived coworkers’ AI usage decreases employees’ organization-based self-esteem and increases their anxiety, resulting in increased knowledge hiding. We further find that AI awareness moderates this relationship. We conducted two studies, a scenario experiment (n = 200) and a three-wave field study (n = 456), to test our research hypothesis. These findings contribute to understanding the psychological and contextual dynamics of AI in the workplace.