Population Aging, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Labor Quality: Evidence from Manufacturing Enterprises in China

This study investigates the impact of population aging on labor quality in manufacturing enterprises and assesses the governance effect of artificial intelligence (AI) in mitigating population aging. By using data of A-share listed companies in China’s manufacturing industry from 2013 to 2022, a two-way fixed effects model is constructed for empirical testing. The results indicate that population aging leads to a decline in enterprises’ labor quality. AI can regulate the negative impact of population aging on enterprises’ labor quality. Furthermore, the moderating effect of AI is heterogeneity in the cities with “China’s Smart City” and higher degree of aging. Heterogeneity differences in effect are also reflected among enterprises with different resource elements and ownership natures. This study provides new ideas for manufacturing enterprises to actively cope with population aging from the perspective of labor quality improvement, which is of great significance in clarifying the future direction of AI development in enterprises.