Purpose

Scholars have highlighted personal interactions between employees and their leaders in an increasingly distributed and hybrid work environment as an essential mechanism that engages employees toward organizational goals. Enhanced employee engagement significantly contributes to sustained organizational performance and growth. While Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications in the HR domain are increasing, research to understand the implication of AI-based virtual assistants on enabling trust and managing human resources is, at best, limited.

Design/methodology/approach

Drawing on the social response theory and the social exchange theory, and based on a multi-source, time-lagged field study spanning over ten months, we investigated the impact of AI-based virtual assistants on employee attitudes, namely perception of fairness and employee engagement.

Findings

The usage of AI-based virtual assistants is associated directly with employee engagement and indirectly through employees’ perceptions of fairness. While employees’ past performance moderates the relationship between perceived fairness and employee engagement, the interaction effect becomes non-significant with AI-based virtual assistants.

Research limitations/implications

Our study contributes to the emerging literature on AI-based virtual assistants in HRM and employee engagement. The virtual assistants’ use to enhance employee engagement emerges as an opportunity for task substitution and augmentation. Our study demonstrates that AI-based virtual assistants can enhance employee engagement and help build perceptions of fairness among employees.

Originality/value

With the emerging importance of AI, there is an increasing interest in explaining human-computer interactions and their effect on employee engagement. Our study is among the early empirical studies examining the implications of AI-based virtual assistants on employee outcomes.