Can (A)I do this for you? – Exploring the Impact of Psychological Distance and AI-Attitude on Task Delegation

Artificial intelligence (AI) creates a new frontier of information systems, ready to be utilized by organizations. However, AI is yet to be implemented across workplaces to automate tasks and to save costs. A crucial success factor to achieve this, is the correct delegation of tasks to AI by considering the individual fit of humans, tasks, and AI. Previous literature focused on tasks’ characteristics that influence the delegation decision. We argue that the effect of personal factors, such as the own involvement in the task (psychological distance) and a person’s attitude towards AI affect the delegation as well. We examined these effects during an experiment (n=211). Our results indicate both factors strongly affect the predictors of AI task delegation. Our findings underline the importance of underlying personal factors for the decision and imply that the persons deciding whether a task shall be delegated to AI or not should be carefully chosen