Background In the context of Malaysia’s rapidly digitalizing higher education sector, this study investigates the paradoxical role of AI literacy by examining its influence on Service-Oriented Organizational Citizenship Behavior (SO-OCB) through competing parallel mediating pathways of work stressors and work engagement. Methods A quantitative, cross-sectional design was employed. Data were collected from 300 Malaysian academics and analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) in SmartPLS 4. Results The findings show that AI literacy has a strong negative relationship with work stressors and a strong positive relationship with work engagement. Both work stressors and work engagement significantly mediate the relationship between AI literacy and SO-OCB, confirming that the primary influence of AI literacy is indirect. Conclusion This study extends Conservation of Resources (COR) theory by establishing AI literacy as a critical personal resource in the digital era and offers practical insights for fostering a resilient academic workforce.
Teh et al. (Wed,) studied this question.