The labor market upheaval caused by technological revolutions has increasingly intensified AI stress perception among professionals across various industries. Understanding how employees can better handle AI stress has emerged as a pivotal research theme in both academic and business circles. This study aims to investigate the potential positive outcomes of AI stress perception, offering a fresh perspective to the realm of AI stress research. Based on the stress appraisal theory, it delves into how job crafting, in the face of AI stress perception, becomes a critical method for practitioners to tackle challenges and foster innovative actions. Additionally, this research takes into account the personal characteristics of practitioners, exploring how their risk propensity moderates the relationship between AI stress perception and job crafting (both promotion-oriented and prevention-oriented) and subsequently influences the relationship between AI stress perception and innovation behavior. A survey of 330 employees and their leaders in the media industry indicated that practitioners’ risk propensity moderates the link between AI stress perception and innovative behavior: those with higher risk propensity experience a more pronounced positive impact of AI stress perception on exploratory innovation through promotion-oriented job crafting, whereas those with lower risk propensity exhibit a more significant positive effect on exploitative innovation through prevention-oriented job crafting.