Agentic AI, which involves systems that can plan and undertake tasks with limited human
oversight, is revolutionising the nature of work and workplace experiences. The advancement
of AI and agentic systems, in particular, is transforming the nature of work and how workers
experience their jobs. While there is vast literature that focuses on the risks of AI to
employees, less is understood about how AI triggers emotions in employees and the
connection between emotional self-management and adaptation. The aim of this research is
to discuss associations among AI anxiety, emotion crafting (proactive strengthening of
positive emotions), AI adaptability and adaptive job performance. Using a cross-sectional
design, a quantitative survey measuring 250 working individuals from various fields of work
included six item scales based on the validated instruments. The reliability of the data ranged
from acceptable to very high, with Cronbach's α values between .78 and .98. Multiple
regression with the six indicators of each predictor construct was used to test the four
hypotheses. Each of the four hypotheses is receiving support. The AI anxiety indicators were
significantly related to AI adaptability (R² = .88), and AI anxiety indicators were significantly
related to emotion crafting (R² = .85), while emotion crafting indicators were significantly
related to AI adaptability (R² = .94), and AI adaptability indicators were significantly related
to adaptive job performance (R² = .98), all at p < .005. The results situate emotion crafting as
a psychologically significant avenue for how employees are affected by AI-related change
and advance the concept from well-being science to technology-centric work situations. Due
to the cross-sectional nature and self-reported data, and the particularly high intercorrelations
between constructs, the results should be considered statistical associations and replicated
with multi-source, longitudinal designs. Theoretical implications, human resource
development and applying AI are explored.