When and How Artificial Intelligence Augments Employee Creativity

Can artificial intelligence (AI) assist human employees in increasing employee creativity? Drawing on research on AI–human collaboration, job design, and employee creativity, we examine AI assistance in the form of a sequential division of labor within organizations: in a task, AI handles the initial portion, which is well-codified and repetitive, and employees focus on the subsequent portion, involving higher-level problem-solving. First, we provide causal evidence from a field experiment conducted at a telemarketing company. We find that AI assistance in generating sales leads, on average, increases employees’ creativity in answering customers’ questions during subsequent sales persuasion. Enhanced…