Industrial intelligence represented by machine to human exchange is an important means for manufacturing enterprises to improve quality and efficiency, but it also brings undeniable social consequences, such as layoffs and labor disputes. Under such pressure, whether enterprises can continue to promote machine replacement has become an important research topic. This article takes a stakeholder perspective and conducts a configuration analysis of 101 small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises. It is found that six factors, including government subsidies, competition intensity, customer type, profitability, enterprise type, and enterprise maturity, interact with each other, forming four paths to expand machine replacement and four paths that do not expand machine replacement, forming causal asymmetry. On the one hand, this article provides an in-depth analysis of the heterogeneous impact of stakeholders on enterprises, and on the other hand, it also provides guidance for enterprises on whether to continue machine replacement when facing labor disputes.