Artificial intelligence (AI) adoption and Chinese art teachers’ career exploration behavior: The roles of job substitution risks, job insecurity, and organizational AI readiness

The increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) in art education raises questions about teachers’ professional security and career development. Drawing primarily on Conservation of Resources (COR) theory and, in a complementary manner, on Career Construction Theory (CCT), this cross-sectional study examined associations among AI adoption, perceived job substitution risk, job insecurity, career exploration behavior, and organizational AI readiness. Survey data from 381 Chinese art teachers were analyzed using Mplus 7.4. AI adoption was positively associated with career exploration behavior. Statistically significant indirect associations were observed through job substitution risk, job insecurity, and their hypothesized sequential combination. Organizational AI readiness positively moderated the AI adoption–career exploration relationship: the association was stronger at higher readiness. COR theory offers a resource-threat interpretation of the indirect associations, while CCT highlights that career exploration may reflect threat-related coping, growth-oriented development, or both. The data did not separately measure these motivations or establish causal ordering. The findings provide context-specific insights into career exploration among art teachers during AI-related technological change.