AI Chatbots Or Human Coaches? Exploring Employee Well-Being in Corporate Sector of Northern Province, Sri Lanka: The Moderating Role of Digital Literacy

Abstract

Well-being of employees has become a focal point for organizations, as it influences productivity and overall performance. Although AI chatbots and human coaching have become popular support mechanisms, there is a lack of studies assessing their comparative effectiveness in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka's corporate sector, and the impact of employees’ digital literacy is yet to be figured out. Hence, this research attempts to determine the influence of AI chatbots and human coaching on employees' well-being, as well as the effect of employees' digital literacy on the relationships. A quantitative, cross-sectional survey design was adopted, and data were collected from 182 corporate sector employees in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka using a structured questionnaire. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, regression analysis, and moderation analysis through Hayes’ PROCESS Macro in SPSS. The results indicate that both human coaching and AI chatbots improve employees' well-being, though the impact is greater with human coaching due to the personal and empathetic nature of the coach. Moreover, digital literacy was found to be a negative moderator to both relationships, indicating that the lower the digital skills of employees, the greater the aid from support systems. The results show that organizations need to create an optimum combination of digital and human technologies, based on the employees' digital readiness to create the desired impact on well-being at the workplace.