Psychological needs and AI delegation across four social domains - A cross-cultural analysis of 35 nations

As artificial intelligence (AI) systems increasingly assume roles with social, educational, and emotional significance, understanding the psychological drivers behind individuals' readiness to delegate such roles to AI is crucial. Drawing on Self-Determination Theory (SDT), this study examines how the satisfaction of basic psychological needs (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) predicts individuals' readiness to delegate socially significant roles to AI across four domains (education, healthcare, mental health, and companionship) and 35 nations. Using data from over 35,000 participants in the 2023 Global Digital Wellbeing Survey, we applied Bayesian multilevel multivariate modelling to assess both global and culture-specific motivational associations. Results revealed that competence emerged as the most consistent predictor of AI delegation across roles, particularly in high-stakes, expertise-driven contexts (healthcare and education). Autonomy showed reliable positive associations in socially and emotionally salient domains (mental health support and companionship). Relatedness showed the weakest and most inconsistent effects but exhibited culturally contingent activation in regions such as the Confucian-Asian and Arab-Islamic clusters. Notably, motivational effects were not uniform across cultures: for example, the influence of autonomy was amplified in South Asian regions, while Nordic countries exhibited low delegation readiness despite culturally autonomy-supportive values. These findings highlight the potential importance of psychological need satisfaction and its cultural modulation in shaping global AI adoption. They also suggest that AI systems should be designed not only for functionality but also for motivational alignment. We discuss implications for ethical design, cross-cultural deployment, and the future of human-AI interaction in socially meaningful domains.