The Impacts of AI-office Assistants’ Application on the Well-being of Employees: An Empirical Study

Abstract

With the widespread application of Artificial Intelligence Office Assistants (AIOAs), the workplace is being reshaped, prompting debate over their impact on employees' psychological well-being. Although existing research emphasizes AI-driven efficiency gains, few studies examine the affective mechanisms linking human–AI interaction to multidimensional employee well-being. Drawing on the Artificial Intelligence Device Use Acceptance (AIDUA) model and Employee Well-being (EWB) theory, this study develops an integrated framework explaining how AI characteristics shape employees' life, workplace, and psychological well-being through cognitive appraisals and affective responses. Survey data from 230 employees of multinational companies (MNCs), collected via Credamo and analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM), reveal that: (1) social influence, hedonic motivation, and anthropomorphism are positively related to performance expectancy whereas social influence is negatively associated with effort expectancy (2) hedonic motivation and anthropomorphism are not associated with effort expectancy; and (3) performance and effort expectancy shape employee well-being through the mediation of positive emotion. This study validates the appraisal–emotion–well-being pathway and the functional–affective duality of anthropomorphism in workplace settings, advising MNCs to prioritize functional utility and positive emotional design over merely anthropomorphic appearance to foster genuine employee well-being.