AI and wellbeing: Getting the balance right between human connection and technology. 

How do you determine the right balance of chatbot and human connection for the financial support service your employees really need? As AI’s ability to fix all of our woes grows infinitely, so too does the risk of losing the human connection in HR – especially in personal matters such as financial wellbeing. That said, chatbots definitely have their place in a number of situations.

Read on to explore the strengths and use cases for both chatbots and human connection. You’ll discover how to strike the right balance in your employee financial wellbeing strategy.

In this blog

AI and wellbeing in employee financial support
Chatbot vs human: strengths and limitations
Why empathy still matters in financial wellbeing
Strategic implications for HR and payroll leaders 
Conclusion and key takeaways 

AI and wellbeing in employee financial support 

While HR departments have been using AI to auto-process job applications for some time, the technology has potential to further add value – for example optimising workforce management.

Employee financial wellbeing is an excellent use case for AI chatbots in some instances. Employees can ‘chat’ with the AI bot, asking the same questions they would of your payroll team.  

Deploying chatbots in this way offers several significant benefits. A key one is 24/7 availability, allowing employees to ask questions – and receive answers – when it suits them. Booking leave, querying PTO balances and more can all be handled by AI-enabled financial wellbeing solutions. This is especially useful for companies employing mobile self-service technology.

Automating the query process relieves the burden on your payroll team, reducing costs and increasing efficiency. AI can scale automatically to meet demand too, handling high volumes of routine enquiries, and re-routing queries to a ‘real’ person for follow-up where necessary.

Similar functionality is now rolling out across employee experience platforms (EXP). With organisations turning to AI to help deliver customised, personalised training for instance. An opportunity of this is to further use AI to make sense of employee engagement, performance and collaboration to identify potential operational improvements. 

 

Chatbot vs human: strengths and limitations 

When considering AI chatbots, it is tempting to go all-or-nothing. But the fact is, effective AI complements your payroll people rather than replacing them. 

AI chatbots do have significant advantages. They are fast, consistent, always available and apply data to solve problems. They are the perfect companion for solving the majority of employee queries. 

However, your payroll team still hold the upper hand when it comes to ‘human’ traits. Empathy, nuance and the ability to handle complex issues with sensitivity are all vital for fostering employee financial wellbeing. Exactly the sort of skills AI cannot accurately replicate. 

For an employee who wants to check their outstanding holiday allowance, it may take hours or days for a payroll agent to get around to providing an answer, but an AI chatbot could do it instantly. 

Now consider an employee who wants to query bereavement leave and any financial entitlements following the death of their spouse. Because of the sensitivity of those topics, it would be appropriate for a human to handle the query, and offer the warmth that an automatic response can lack.  

One the other hand, the detachment offered by an AI chatbot can feel like a haven for employees who don’t want to involve another human in their issues – this might be due to embarrassment, a sense of independence over information, or not feeling able to discuss certain situations with those they are close to professionally. A powerful example of AI chatbot use is McDonald’s Red flag chatbot – which gives employees a safe space to report misconduct or harassment at any time, and in multiple languages.

 Why empathy still matters in financial wellbeing 

Finances are a deeply personal, emotive subject. And financial issues can have a serious negative impact on overall wellbeing.        

To be blunt, technology cannot solve all personal financial stressors. Trust, empathy and human connection are all essential elements of supporting employees through financial challenges.  

Although an AI chatbot may be able to provide the correct answers, it cannot offer genuine empathy and may miss some of the nuances of human interaction. Similarly, automation may deliver a result faster, but it can leave employees feeling cold, alienated and dehumanised if over-used – compounding the very wellbeing issues they attempt to solve. 

Strategic implications for HR and payroll leaders 

For most organisations, the headline benefit of increased efficiency and cost savings is reason enough to implement AI anywhere they can. However, this approach is not only simplistic but could have serious ramifications for employee trust and wellbeing – and therefore the wider organisation too. 

Effective artificial intelligence deployment needs careful planning. When it comes to financial wellbeing, the strategic approach aligns organisational values with employee needs to achieve the correct balance of humanity and technology to properly support your people. 

And, while the sensitive nature of personal finances is important, it mustn’t overshadow the importance of obligations such as privacy, transparency, ethics, and personal data compliance.   

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Conclusion: AI for efficiency, humans for connection
 

The reality is that AI and wellbeing are complementary – with the right blend of people and technology. However, building the right balance is not always straightforward. 

Organisations that take a strategic, data-driven approach to skills development and employee financial wellbeing can stand apart from the competition and reap significant rewards. Investing in honing employee skills and improving their overall financial wellbeing can reduce stress and create a happier, more productive workforce – a win-win for employees and employers alike

Key takeaways

• AI chatbots offer exciting new ways to interact with your employees. 

• Chatbots can deliver significant performance and efficiency gains. 

• Not every employee interaction should be conducted using chatbots. 

• Human skills like empathy and understanding nuance will be critical to improving employee financial wellbeing. 

• An effective AI and wellbeing strategy will combine technology and humans for greater effect. 

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Join us for a webinar: AI and human support in financial wellbeing

Discover how AI is transforming employee financial support. Join Gethin Nadin to explore the power of chatbots in payroll and HR, where automation excels, when humans matter most, and how blending both boosts trust, wellbeing, and confidence. Learn to deliver smarter, always-on support that meets employees’ realtime needs.