Automation anxiety in information systems research: a meta‑narrative review

Automation anxiety is a recurring concern in Information Systems (IS) research, yet it remains conceptually fragmented and under-theorized. Prior studies have examined automation-related anxieties, such as job displacement, deskilling, digital risk, and trust erosion, largely in isolation, limiting cumulative theorizing and obscuring how these concerns connect across levels and contexts. To address this gap, we develop an integrative framework grounded in a systematic meta-narrative review of leading IS research. Synthesizing work across market, organizational, workforce, technological, and societal domains, the analysis identifies five meta-themes and fourteen meta-narratives that serve as sensemaking frames through which automation anxieties are articulated and acted upon. The framework specifies recurrent propagation logics and downstream spillovers, supported by an interaction map that summarizes dominant reinforcing connections and illustrative feedback pathways. In doing so, the paper shifts attention from discrete automation-anxiety constructs to the interplay of narratives through which automation-related concerns become linked across domains. The paper concludes by outlining areas for further research.