The new social image: how AI competency and AI proactivity influence self- and peer-perceptions in the workplace
Citation. Ghosh, K., Hassenzahl, M., & Sadeghian, S. (2026). The new social image: how AI competency and AI proactivity influence self- and peer-perceptions in the workplace. Interacting with Computers. https://doi.org/10.1093/iwc/iwag033
Summary. In a 2 × 2 × 2 video-vignette experiment (n = 50), Ghosh, Hassenzahl, and Sadeghian manipulated an AI coworker’s competence and proactivity and compared employees’ self-perceptions with peer perceptions. Lower AI competence or proactivity generally produced more favorable evaluations of work ownership, meaningfulness, satisfaction, role dynamics, and affect, with some effects varying by perspective. The study argues that AI performance characteristics are also work-design characteristics: systems that are highly capable and proactive may reduce the social and experiential value workers attach to their contribution.
Key claims
- Across the vignette conditions, lower AI competency or lower AI proactivity generally improved perceived ownership, job meaningfulness, satisfaction, role dynamics, and positive affect while reducing negative affect.
- The effects were partly perspective-dependent: low AI proactivity produced higher job satisfaction in self-perception than in peer perception.
- Optimizing workplace AI only for task performance can miss its effects on workers’ job identity, social image, ownership, and team dynamics.
Evidence & limitations
- Peer-reviewed accepted manuscript of an Interacting with Computers article; the Drive PDF exactly matches the public arXiv v2 PDF (SHA-256) while the DOI identifies the published version of record.
- A 2 × 2 × 2 video-vignette study with 50 participants supports causal inference about described AI attributes and perceptions, but not observed behavior, durable workplace outcomes, or effects in live organizational settings.
- The study measures scenario-based self- and peer-perceptions; it cannot establish whether the same social-image dynamics govern actual adoption, performance, collaboration, or career outcomes.