The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) is significantly shaping employee behavior in modern enterprises. Enhancing employee engagement and performance has thus become a critical challenge for organizational management. Drawing on the Group Engagement Model (GEM), this study examines how different dimensions of compensation fairness—distributive, procedural, and interactional—affect task performance through emotional engagement, while considering the moderating roles of emotional intelligence (EI) and AI adoption (AIA). Using structural equation modeling and three-way interaction analyses, we analyzed data from 311 employees in Chinese media organizations. Findings reveal that all three compensation fairness dimensions positively influence emotional engagement, which in turn enhances task performance. Distributive fairness showed the strongest link with emotional engagement, whereas procedural fairness exerted the greatest overall effect on task performance. Moreover, the moderating effect of emotional intelligence on the interactional fairness–emotional engagement relationship is strengthened in the context of higher AI adoption, confirming a moderated-moderated mediation effect. These results extend the GEM framework and suggest that organizations should design compensation policies and technology strategies that foster employee engagement, improve productivity, and support sustainable organizational development.
