Exploring the impact of AI technostress on physicians' job insecurity and performance from an empirical multi-hospital study.
Journal:
iScience
Published Date:
Dec 9, 2025
Abstract
This study expands Califf's technostress model, which explores the psychological stress caused by technology, by integrating "perceived self-esteem threat" as a key stressor driven by the growing influence of medical artificial intelligence (AI), examining its impact on physicians' job insecurity and performance. A survey of 400 physicians from three Taiwanese hospitals (92.4% response rate) revealed the nuanced effects of AI-related technostress. Structural equation modeling (SEM), a statistical method used to test relationships between variables, showed that complexity and technology overload significantly increase job insecurity, while AI reliability, unexpectedly, also heightens it. AI self-esteem threat emerged as the most influential source of technostress. Job insecurity negatively affects job satisfaction but unexpectedly boosts job performance, suggesting a motivational response to perceived threats. The expanded model explains 44.6% of the variance in psychological reactions to AI, underscoring the critical role of self-esteem threat in shaping physicians' well-being and performance.
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