The impact of AI-integrated purchasing management on managers’ well-being: A dual-pathway view

Purchasing managers are under increasing pressure to ensure supply continuity, coordinate logistics-related activities, and sustain firms’ competitiveness in the digital era, yet their well-being has attracted relatively limited academic attention. As artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly integrated into procurement processes that support logistics coordination, this integration brings about significant shifts in job structures, generating both opportunities and challenges for these supply chain professionals. Grounded in the job demands-resources (JD-R) model, this study explores how AI-integrated purchasing management (AIPM) influences purchasing managers’ well-being through dual pathways: enhancing perceived operational efficiency while increasing role ambiguity. Moreover, the study investigates the moderating effects of perceived organizational support and learning agility. Based on survey data from 365 purchasing managers in Chinese manufacturing firms, the findings reveal that AIPM improves well-being through efficiency improvements but undermines it through role ambiguity. Notably, both perceived organizational support and learning agility reinforce the positive pathway and buffer the negative one. This study contributes to logistics, supply chain, and operations management research by focusing on a human-centric outcome of AIPM and extending the JD-R model to explain how AI reshapes purchasing managers’ well-being through changes in job characteristics and work roles. Furthermore, the findings offer practical guidance for firms on implementing AIPM to support supply continuity and logistics coordination through procurement-related activities while enhancing purchasing managers’ well-being.