In recent years, the artificial intelligence technology in China has developed rapidly, promoting intelligent manufacturing to deeply integrate into various sectors of social production. Against this background, the impact of intelligent manufacturing on the labor market has become a focus for scholars both domestically and internationally. However, most of the existing research focuses on the impact of intelligent manufacturing on aspects such as the scale of labor employment and salary levels, with little attention paid to its impact on worker health, and there is a lack of detailed exploration of its action paths.

Based on the China Customs Database, China Patent Database, and China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) Database from 2000 to 2015, this paper examines the impact of intelligent manufacturing on worker health from an individual micro-perspective and explores its micro-mechanisms. The study finds that intelligent manufacturing significantly improves worker health. Specifically, intelligent manufacturing can not only reduce the probability of workers suffering from emotional disorders, traumatic injuries, and immune system and respiratory system diseases, but also have a positive impact on workers’ mental health. Mechanism testing shows that intelligent manufacturing improves worker health mainly through reducing working hours and intensity, enhancing the sense of work value, relieving psychological stress, and improving the working environment. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the health-promoting effect of intelligent manufacturing is more obvious for low-skilled workers and temporary workers.

The contributions of this paper are as follows: First, from the research perspective, existing literature mainly focuses on the impact of intelligent manufacturing on employment, while this paper analyzes it from the perspective of individual health, enriching the research on the impact of intelligent manufacturing on social individuals. Second, in terms of the research mechanism, this paper profoundly analyzes the mechanism by which intelligent manufacturing affects worker health, and verifies the action paths. Third, in terms of the research conclusions, this paper not only enriches the results of the impact of intelligent manufacturing on the probability of workers suffering from different types of diseases, but also confirms that it can effectively offset the panic caused by “machine substitution for human” by optimizing the production process and improving the work environment, thereby significantly enhancing workers’ mental health, which provides new evidence for a comprehensive and objective understanding of the impact of intelligent manufacturing on workers.