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Not My Truce: Personality Differences in AI-Mediated Workplace Negotiation

Veda Duddu, Jash Rajesh Parekh, Andy Mao, Hanyi Min, Ziang Xiao, Vedant Das Swain, Koustuv Saha

Abstract

AI-driven conversational coaching is increasingly used to support workplace negotiation, yet prior work assumes uniform effectiveness across users. We challenge this assumption by examining how individual differences, particularly personality traits, moderate coaching outcomes. We conducted a between-subjects experiment (N=267) comparing theory-driven AI (Trucey), general-purpose AI (Control-AI), and a traditional negotiation handbook (Control-NoAI). Participants were clustered into three profiles -- resilient, overcontrolled, and undercontrolled -- based on the Big-Five personality traits and ARC typology. Resilient workers achieved broad psychological gains primarily from the handbook, overcontrolled workers showed outcome-specific improvements with theory-driven AI, and undercontrolled workers exhibited minimal effects despite engaging with the frameworks. These patterns suggest personality as a predictor of readiness beyond stage-based tailoring: vulnerable users benefit from targeted rather than comprehensive interventions. The study advances understanding of personality-determined intervention prerequisites and highlights design implications for adaptive AI coaching systems that align support intensity with individual readiness, rather than assuming universal effectiveness.

Not My Truce: Personality Differences in AI-Mediated Workplace Negotiation

Abstract

AI-driven conversational coaching is increasingly used to support workplace negotiation, yet prior work assumes uniform effectiveness across users. We challenge this assumption by examining how individual differences, particularly personality traits, moderate coaching outcomes. We conducted a between-subjects experiment (N=267) comparing theory-driven AI (Trucey), general-purpose AI (Control-AI), and a traditional negotiation handbook (Control-NoAI). Participants were clustered into three profiles -- resilient, overcontrolled, and undercontrolled -- based on the Big-Five personality traits and ARC typology. Resilient workers achieved broad psychological gains primarily from the handbook, overcontrolled workers showed outcome-specific improvements with theory-driven AI, and undercontrolled workers exhibited minimal effects despite engaging with the frameworks. These patterns suggest personality as a predictor of readiness beyond stage-based tailoring: vulnerable users benefit from targeted rather than comprehensive interventions. The study advances understanding of personality-determined intervention prerequisites and highlights design implications for adaptive AI coaching systems that align support intensity with individual readiness, rather than assuming universal effectiveness.

Paper Structure

This paper contains 25 sections, 2 figures, 7 tables.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Related Work
  3. Personality and Individual Differences in Negotiation
  4. AI-Driven Technologies for Workplace Communication
  5. AI Coaching and Rehearsal for Negotiation
  6. Study and Methods
  7. Designing an Interactive Prototype: Trucey
  8. Study Design and Procedure
  9. Conditions
  10. Data Collection
  11. Measures
  12. Analysis
  13. Personality Clustering
  14. Privacy, Ethics, and Reflexivity
  15. Results
  16. ...and 10 more sections

Figures (2)

  • Figure 1: Example screenshots of Trucey through various stages of user interactions.
  • Figure 2: Figures describing the clustering and clusters: (a) Elbow method (b) Silhouette scores for determining the optimal number of personality clusters. (c) PCA-based distribution of the clusters across two PCA dimensions, and (d) Heatmap showing the distribution of the personality traits across the three clusters.