With the introduction of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) into organizational workflows, employees' emotional responses to AI and their subsequent impacts have been studied a lot. Existing research often adopts an "optimism-pessimism" dichotomy, overlooking the complex emotions employees experience in human-AI interactions. Awe is an emotional experience elicited by vast and cognitively overwhelming phenomena, affecting individuals' behaviors in various ways. The rapid evolution of AI constantly challenges human imagination. People have unknowingly developed a sense of awe towards it, similar to the reverence one might feel towards supernatural powers or unknown technologies，we name this emotion as Awe toward AI in the study.


This study first conducted an exploratory analysis based on an open-ended survey, examining the connotation of employees' perceived "awe toward AI" and its potential effects. The results reveal that when employees encounter AI's extraordinary cognitive and generative capabilities, they experience a paradoxical emotional response blending amazement, admiration, and a sense of threat. This experience not only triggers self-reflection on their own competencies and roles but may also enhance learning motivation, collective orientation, and willingness to collaborate with AI.


Building on these findings, we further conducted an empirical study to systematically examine the formation mechanisms and behavioral consequences of awe toward AI. It finds that perceived AI capability has positive relation with awe toward AI which in turn has a positive relation with taking charge behaviour through the mediation of collective engagement. Team AI readiness moderates the influence of perceived AI capability and awe toward AI. Grounded in employees' subjective experiences, this research uncovers awe toward AI as an overlooked yet highly explanatory emotional process. It offers a novel theoretical lens for understanding employees' emotional and proactive responses in human-AI collaboration contexts while providing practical insights for organizations to guide constructive employee adaptation to AI-driven transformations.