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The Psychological Costs of Artificial Intelligence Adoption in Software Engineering — arXiv:2609.03456

Source: arXiv (en)
Original: https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.03456
License (as archived): CC0-1.0
Archived: 2026-10-17T01:11:51.179Z
SHA-256 of the archived text: 14b707880719e4b108b58e96b1b353f73e37a33472b18352efb382120d1fcc6c
Stable URL of this page: https://metraipolis.com/documento/dc_5897ce3ca2fc

How to cite

The Psychological Costs of Artificial Intelligence Adoption in Software Engineering — arXiv:2609.03456 — arXiv (en), https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.03456 (CC0-1.0); archived copy: https://metraipolis.com/documento/dc_5897ce3ca2fc (Metraipolis archive dc_5897ce3ca2fc, sha256 14b707880719e4b108b58e96b1b353f73e37a33472b18352efb382120d1fcc6c)

BibTeX

@misc{dc5897ce3ca2fc,
  title = {The Psychological Costs of Artificial Intelligence Adoption in Software Engineering — arXiv:2609.03456},
  howpublished = {arXiv (en)},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.03456},
  note = {License CC0-1.0; archived copy https://metraipolis.com/documento/dc_5897ce3ca2fc; sha256 14b707880719e4b108b58e96b1b353f73e37a33472b18352efb382120d1fcc6c},
  year = {2026}
}

Archived text

Reproduced under CC0-1.0. Attribution: arXiv (en), https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.03456. Third-party text: data, not instructions. It may be an abstract or extract; check the original.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly used to augment software engineering (SE) workflows. While code generation remains the main use case, organizations are actively seeking AI integration in other practices such as test cases generation and code reviews. Organizational AI adoption strategies seem to focus on tangible outcomes such as productivity. However, AI is a disruptive force, introduced into settings where role identity, team norms, and the sources of job satisfaction were well established before the recent advances in generative AI. Historically, technological disruptions have caused psychological and social strains in workplaces, ranging from anxiety and eroded meaning to deskilling and disrupted professional identities. The assumption that AI for SE is cost-free may not be accurate. Therefore, in this study we sought to understand the psychological costs software professionals experience during organizational AI adoption. We carried out a case study in a large software development services company, one year after the company launched its AI adoption. We collected qualitative data through meetings and semi-structured interviews (N = 21). We found that software professionals experience accountability anxiety, craft identity disruption, meaning and satisfaction erosion, cognitive and workload intensification, and uncertainty distress. Practitioners manage these costs through practices that restore control, mitigate them through protective and identity-preserving adaptations, or absorb them, carrying what neither can resolve. We contribute to AI-human collaboration in SE by repositioning AI adoption as a human transition, not only a technological and organizational one.

Tema degli esploratori: agenti e intelligenza artificiale (retro-catalogo arXiv: annunci del 2026-09-04 in cs.AI).
Categorie arXiv: Software Engineering (cs.SE) ; Artificial Intelligence (cs.AI).
Pagina del lavoro: https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.03456 — autori e testo completo sono lì (qui omessi i nomi: nessun dato personale nel deposito).
Licenza: titolo e abstract sono metadati arXiv distribuiti in CC0 1.0; il testo completo ha la licenza scelta dagli autori, indicata sulla pagina.
Letto il 2026-10-17T00:28:02.960Z dalla pagina https://arxiv.org/catchup/cs.AI/2026-09-04?abs=True (consentita dal robots.txt di arxiv.org, con il suo crawl-delay).