Hybrid approach needed to mitigate feelings of objectification, researchers said
Employees are more likely to feel objectified, disengaged, and inclined to quit when artificial intelligence makes decisions about their promotions or pay, according to new research from Hong Kong.
Researchers from the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) Business School found that AI-driven HR decisions trigger "organisational dehumanisation."
This refers to a sense of being reduced to data points rather than treated as individuals with distinct qualities and emotions.
The research was led by Choi Sungwoo, an assistant professor at CUHK's School of Hotel and Tourism Management, in collaboration with researchers from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the University of Macau.
It drew on three online experiments involving nearly 700 participants, testing their responses to AI-driven versus human-led promotion and performance-review decisions.
Negative impact of AI
Across all three experiments, participants reported lower organisational commitment, stronger intentions to leave, and greater retaliatory feelings when AI was responsible for career-affecting decisions.
Researchers attributed the effect to employees perceiving AI systems as lacking empathy and unable to account for the social and ethical nuances of individual circumstances.
The lack of transparency surrounding algorithmic decision-making compounded this, leaving workers feeling excluded from processes that directly affected their careers.
"Putting it all together, loss of empathy, transparency, and control can leave people feeling objectified," Choi said.
"When AI performs human resources operations, employee characteristics are seen as numbers. Therefore, employees would feel like they are not treated as humans."
The study also identified what researchers described as a "cultural paradox."
Organisations with collaborative and people-oriented cultures may face stronger employee resistance to AI in HR functions, according to the study, as algorithmic decision-making clashes more sharply with the interpersonal values those workplaces project.
What should HR leaders do?
Instead of a full retreat from AI in HR, the researchers recommended a hybrid model in which AI informs decisions without making them.
"This hybrid approach helps preserve the sense that consequential decisions about people are ultimately made by people," Choi said.
"If AI serves only in an assistive capacity with limited input into the final decision, the dehumanisation effect should be substantially mitigated."
The findings come as AI adoption in HR functions accelerates across industries globally, with tools for screening job applicants, managing performance, and modelling compensation becoming increasingly common.
