Digital Technologies for Well-being at Work: Tensions, Opportunities, and Future Directions. A Horizon Scanning Study

The digital skills of the UK workforce and the integration of technology in the workplace are continually evolving, with substantial changes and benefits still to emerge. Digital technologies (DT), such as big data, tracking devices, and artificial intelligence, are being introduced into organizations, offering advanced capabilities. Due to their ability to help make decisions and develop protocols, these technologies can enhance but also disrupt traditional work processes and affect people’s experience at work. As the UK Government is raising to these challenges (see the ‘AI Opportunities Action Plan’ report 2025), organizations are increasingly focusing on worker well-being and adopting a range of DT to support it, with the promise that such technologies can support wellness as well as productivity.

In the era of the 4th Industrial Revolution and the emergence of ‘positive technologies’, these developments raise important questions for organizations and individuals, DT developers, work and employment researchers, and public policy makers:

• what is the impact of digital technologies on well-being at work?
• what are the benefits and barriers of applying digital technologies to support well-being at work?
• what are the challenges and opportunities in applying DT for wellbeing at work?
• what should future research focus on?