Effects of AI-based technologies on employees’ work engagement: Implications for the human-centered design of digital work

An important goal of the Regional Competence Center AKzentE4.0 is to support companies in the Rhineland region in designing their digital transformation in a human-friendly way based on scientific findings. In order to derive evidence-based guidelines for the humane design of AI-supported work, further insights are needed into how the use of AI affects characteristics of humane work design and how this differs from the general use of digital technologies. To this end, a secondary analysis of a questionnaire study conducted in the context of AKzentE4.0 was carried out. The analyzed dataset included responses from N = 825 digital information workers. Two central research questions were analyzed: 1. Does the perception of work engagement differ between users and non-users of AI systems? 2. Which characteristics of human-centered work design predict work engagement when working with AI and are there differences compared to those who do not work with AI? Practical Relevance: The results show that a human-centered and humane design of AI-supported work should focus on providing meaningful tasks for employees, support from supervisors and preserving employees’ autonomy. Particularly, the aspect of meaningful work can be threatened by technology. For AI systems to be effective in the workplace in terms of maintaining health and promoting learning, care should be taken to ensure that they can support work in a targeted way and do not replace, but rather promote meaningful work tasks. Employees, with the support of their managers, should also be able to control the use of AI systems to maintain greater autonomy and agency.