Effect of AI empathy perception on employees' prosocial behavior: mediating role of warmth and moderating role of AI anthropomorphism

With the rapid advancement of AI technology, an increasing number of organizations are introducing AI as formal employees in the workplace. By conducting hypothesis testing on 400 sample data from eight highly digitalized companies in China, the findings show that the perception of AI empathy can enhance employees' prosocial behavior, with warmth serving as a mediating factor. Furthermore, AI anthropomorphism moderates the effect of AI empathy perception on employees' prosocial behavior through warmth: the higher the degree of AI anthropomorphism, the greater the positive impact of AI empathy perception on warmth, which in turn positively moderates the effect of AI empathy perception on human employees' prosocial behavior. This paper constructs a pathway of "technological environment-emotional cognition-behavioral activation," expanding the research perspective on behavior and emotional cognition within the domain of human-computer interaction. It elevates AI's emotional interaction to the level of organizational behavior management, promoting a shift from human-machine collaboration to human-to-human collaboration.