Human-Centred AI and Employee Well-Being: The Mediating Role of Psychological Safety and the Moderating Role of Ethical Leadership

Abstract

With the growing integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into the workplace, there has been a parallel discussion about how AI use improves or diminishes the human work experience. Along with the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into work, scholars and practitioners have started to question whether AI use enhances or degrades the human work experience. Based on Conservation of Resources theory and Job Demands-Resources model, this study investigates the relationship between an AI design and deployment that emphasizes human-centric aspects and employee well-being and explores the mediating role of psychological safety and the boundary condition of ethical leadership. The survey data were analysed by correlation, hierarchical regression-based mediation, bootstrapped indirect-effect estimation, and moderated regression which were conducted on 386 employees in five industry sectors. Results indicate that human-centred AI (HCAI) is positively correlated with psychological safety (β = .39, *p* < .001) as well as with employee well-being (β = .30, *p* < .001); that psychological safety partially mediates the correlation between HCAI and employee well-being (indirect effect = .17, 95% CI [.12, .22]); and that ethical leadership significantly moderates the correlation between psychological safety and employee well-being (β = .14, *p* = .001, positive effect). Ethical leadership did not significantly moderate the first-stage HCAI-psychological safety path, suggesting that the protective effect of ethical leadership is largely downstream, at the level of psychological safety to well-being. The implications for human-centred AI governance and leadership development are discussed.

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