AI Perception, Work Changes, and Readiness for Change in Organizations: A Cross-Sector Study

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This study examines employees’ readiness for AI-related organizational change by integrating AI perception, work reconfiguration, organizational conditions, and trust within a socio-technical perspective. A cross-sectional survey of 276 employees from six sectors in Croatia combined theory-guided operational composites, reliability assessment, exploratory principal component analysis, nonparametric comparisons, and multiple linear regression. AI perception (β = 0.195, p = 0.003) and AI-related work reconfiguration (β = 0.350, p < 0.001) were positively associated with adaptive capacity and readiness for change. Organizational change culture and trust and organizational relations showed substantial overlap, limiting interpretation of their separate adjusted coefficients. Significant sectoral differences were observed across all five measured domains. Open-ended responses highlighted perceived benefits associated with automation and work processes alongside concerns about accuracy, privacy, ethics, employment, and human oversight. The findings suggest that organizational AI implementation should consider changes in work practices, transparent communication, employee involvement, competence development, and trust. Interpretation is limited by the cross-sectional design, purposive nonprobability sampling, self-reported measures, and the absence of independent confirmatory measurement validation.