Organizations increasingly leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to navigate complex and dynamic operational landscapes. Anchored in Self-Determination Theory (SDT), this study explores how individual, team, and organizational-level factors influence employees’ attitudes toward AI at work. We conducted an intervention study with 67 employees in a European industrial company to evaluate the impact of introducing a generative AI chatbot. The study employed a pre-post design, measuring changes in employee attitudes before the chatbot’s introduction and one month after. Our analytical approach distinguishes between cognitive and affective dimensions of AI attitudes, including perceptions of utility, anxiety, and insecurity, with a focus on how competence, relatedness, and autonomy drive these perceptions. Our findings reveal that introducing a generative AI tool significantly improved employees’ attitudes toward AI, particularly when supported by individual AI competence and autonomy through participation in the AI development process. These enhanced AI attitudes in turn led to higher employee performance. Regarding relatedness, team interdependence did not alter AI attitudes. This study enhances the multilevel understanding of AI adoption processes and offers actionable insights for optimizing chatbot implementations.