AI and the Future of Work: Enhancing Employee Experience from Satisfaction to Flourishing

Anna Viljakainen; Juho Silmukari; Virpi Roto; Martina Čaić; Susanna Aromaa

doi:10.1145/3746175.3747194

AI and the Future of Work: Enhancing Employee Experience from Satisfaction to Flourishing

Anna Viljakainen^*
, Juho Silmukari
, Virpi Roto
, Martina Čaić
, Susanna Aromaa

^*Corresponding author for this work

BA5611 Human factors and system safety

Aalto University

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference article in proceedings › Scientific › peer-review

Abstract

This paper explores the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance employee experience in future industrial work environments, with a focus on promoting employee well-being and work meaningfulness. Drawing upon well-known theories and schools of thought such as Motivation-Hygiene Theory, Human-Factors and Ergonomics, Self-Determination Theory and Aristotelian Philosophy, the paper presents the different roles for AI to improve employee satisfaction, promote engagement, and flourishing. Firstly, AI can be introduced to remove pain points in work tasks inducing higher employee satisfaction. Secondly, AI can be adopted to enhance human agency to improve work engagement. Finally, AI can be developed to cultivate employees’ sense of purpose, self-worth, and flourishing at work. This interdisciplinary perspective shows how AI design could build on ergonomics and expand its scope to engaging experiences and even to flourishing, the ultimate level of human well-being.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	ECCE '25: Proceedings of the 36th Annual Conference of the European Association of Cognitive Ergonomics
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery ACM
Number of pages	4
ISBN (Electronic)	979-8-4007-2033-8
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3746175.3747194
Publication status	Published - 2025
MoE publication type	A4 Article in a conference publication
Event	36th Annual Conference of the European Association of Cognitive Ergonomics, ECCE 2025 - Tallinn, Estonia Duration: 7 Oct 2025 → 10 Oct 2025

Conference

Conference	36th Annual Conference of the European Association of Cognitive Ergonomics, ECCE 2025
Country/Territory	Estonia
City	Tallinn
Period	7/10/25 → 10/10/25

Funding

This work was supported by Business Finland under Grant number 10514/31/2023.

Keywords

Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Employee well-being
Human-AI interaction
Meaningful work

Access to Document

10.1145/3746175.3747194Licence: CC BY

Cite this

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title = "AI and the Future of Work: Enhancing Employee Experience from Satisfaction to Flourishing",

abstract = "This paper explores the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance employee experience in future industrial work environments, with a focus on promoting employee well-being and work meaningfulness. Drawing upon well-known theories and schools of thought such as Motivation-Hygiene Theory, Human-Factors and Ergonomics, Self-Determination Theory and Aristotelian Philosophy, the paper presents the different roles for AI to improve employee satisfaction, promote engagement, and flourishing. Firstly, AI can be introduced to remove pain points in work tasks inducing higher employee satisfaction. Secondly, AI can be adopted to enhance human agency to improve work engagement. Finally, AI can be developed to cultivate employees{\textquoteright} sense of purpose, self-worth, and flourishing at work. This interdisciplinary perspective shows how AI design could build on ergonomics and expand its scope to engaging experiences and even to flourishing, the ultimate level of human well-being.",

keywords = "Artificial Intelligence (AI), Employee well-being, Human-AI interaction, Meaningful work",

author = "Anna Viljakainen and Juho Silmukari and Virpi Roto and Martina {\v C}ai{\'c} and Susanna Aromaa",

year = "2025",

doi = "10.1145/3746175.3747194",

language = "English",

booktitle = "ECCE '25: Proceedings of the 36th Annual Conference of the European Association of Cognitive Ergonomics",

publisher = "Association for Computing Machinery ACM",

address = "United States",

note = "36th Annual Conference of the European Association of Cognitive Ergonomics, ECCE 2025 ; Conference date: 07-10-2025 Through 10-10-2025",

}

Viljakainen, A, Silmukari, J, Roto, V, Čaić, M & Aromaa, S 2025, AI and the Future of Work: Enhancing Employee Experience from Satisfaction to Flourishing. in ECCE '25: Proceedings of the 36th Annual Conference of the European Association of Cognitive Ergonomics., 26, Association for Computing Machinery ACM, 36th Annual Conference of the European Association of Cognitive Ergonomics, ECCE 2025, Tallinn, Estonia, 7/10/25. https://doi.org/10.1145/3746175.3747194

AI and the Future of Work: Enhancing Employee Experience from Satisfaction to Flourishing. / Viljakainen, Anna; Silmukari, Juho; Roto, Virpi et al.
ECCE '25: Proceedings of the 36th Annual Conference of the European Association of Cognitive Ergonomics. Association for Computing Machinery ACM, 2025. 26.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference article in proceedings › Scientific › peer-review

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T1 - AI and the Future of Work: Enhancing Employee Experience from Satisfaction to Flourishing

AU - Viljakainen, Anna

AU - Silmukari, Juho

AU - Roto, Virpi

AU - Čaić, Martina

AU - Aromaa, Susanna

PY - 2025

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AB - This paper explores the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance employee experience in future industrial work environments, with a focus on promoting employee well-being and work meaningfulness. Drawing upon well-known theories and schools of thought such as Motivation-Hygiene Theory, Human-Factors and Ergonomics, Self-Determination Theory and Aristotelian Philosophy, the paper presents the different roles for AI to improve employee satisfaction, promote engagement, and flourishing. Firstly, AI can be introduced to remove pain points in work tasks inducing higher employee satisfaction. Secondly, AI can be adopted to enhance human agency to improve work engagement. Finally, AI can be developed to cultivate employees’ sense of purpose, self-worth, and flourishing at work. This interdisciplinary perspective shows how AI design could build on ergonomics and expand its scope to engaging experiences and even to flourishing, the ultimate level of human well-being.

KW - Artificial Intelligence (AI)

KW - Employee well-being

KW - Human-AI interaction

KW - Meaningful work

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M3 - Conference article in proceedings

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PB - Association for Computing Machinery ACM

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ER -

AI and the Future of Work: Enhancing Employee Experience from Satisfaction to Flourishing

Abstract

Conference

Funding

Keywords

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

HiFive: Meaningful industrial work in hybrid human-technology-AI teams

Cite this

AI and the Future of Work: Enhancing Employee Experience from Satisfaction to Flourishing

Abstract

Conference

Funding

Keywords

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Projects

HiFive: Meaningful industrial work in hybrid human-technology-AI teams

Cite this