We examined neurotic CEOs’ engagement with a paradigm-shifting technology, artificial intelligence (AI) innovation. While paradigm-shift technologies like AI have been transformative for organizations and society, the psychological antecedents, particularly neuroticism, remain underexplored. Neuroticism, a key dimension of the Big Five (Big-5) personality traits, is characterized by anxiety, self-defense, and emotional instability. Neurotic CEOs’ perception on the risk of commission due to ambiguous returns and the risk of omission driven by the burgeoning potential of the technology, drive their engagement in AI innovation. We leveraged the context of the milestone event of AlphaGo’s victory in 2016 to showcase the paradoxical effects of neuroticism personality. We hypothesized that neurotic CEOs made less AI innovation due to the perceived risks of commission, but this attitude shifts post-AlphaGo’s victory, driven by a fear of missing out on industry trends, leading to increased more AI innovations. We also theorized that this neurotic bias will be enhanced by a self-regarding cognitive style but mitigated by AI-related education. Using a sample from the Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 1500 firms (2013-2019), we analyzed CEO personalities through their language in earnings call transcripts and AI patent data. This study contributes to the understanding of corporate engagement in paradigm-shift technologies by highlighting neurotic personality in CEOs. We also discussed the theoretical potential in the research on managerial risk-taking and the theories on subjects and agents of action in the social context.