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Workers are feeling AI anxiety — and that they might be training their ...
Workers are feeling AI anxiety — and that they might be training their replacements By Tim Paradis You're currently following this author! Want to unfollow? Unsubscribe via the link in your email. Some workers fear that using AI means they're training their replacement. Wayne Parry/Associated Press 2026-04-05T09:55:01.239Z Some workers worry that using AI at work will help the technology eventually replace them. Companies investing in AI want to boost efficiency, and some are using the tech as an excuse for cuts. In the near future, one workplace analyst says, AI will change most roles rather than replace them. Erin McGoff keeps hearing the same concern from workers: that using AI endangers their jobs. "I have people who say that they, every day, feel like they're training their replacement," said McGoff, who founded and runs the career-education platform AdviceWithErin.A recent poll found that 30% of Americans believe their jobs may be made obsolete by AI. Meanwhile, more college students are changing their majors because of what AI might mean for the job market.The anxiety isn't unfounded. Companies are investing billions of dollars in AI to boost efficiency. Having the technology take on work that companies now pay people to do would let businesses slash payroll. Already, some are talking about how they've replaced workers with AI.Other companies, like BNY, are bringing on "digital employees" to handle mundane work. The bank has said the goal is to free up staff for other tasks, not to replace them.As AI gets more capable, it's not surprising that these workers worry that using AI now — and thereby helping it improve — will make them less employable later. Yet the outcome is unlikely to be a simple one-for-one replacement, McGoff and other workplace observers told Business Insider.That's because jobs tend to involve balancing multiple tasks, dealing with ambiguity, and making judgment. So it won't be easy for AI to push workers aside only by watching them operate."We're not close to that, almost in any sphere," said JP Gownder, a VP and principal analyst at Forrester Research.McGoff said she recently heard from someone who was worried they were training AI to take their job, only to learn they worked as a product manager. "I said, 'Oh, so you're the client-facing role, AI is not coming for your job anytime soon."Why worries aren't going awayA growing number of CEOs are pinning layoffs on AI. Often, though, such cuts — and sluggish hiring — have...
AI Anxiety at Work: Why Professionals Fear AI and What ... - LinkedIn
Pew found that 52% of workers are worried about the future impact of AI in the workplace, while 32% think it will lead to fewer job opportunities for them in the long run. Only 6% think it will create more opportunities for them. That is the emotional reality of AI at work right now: people are hearing “transformation,” but many are feeling threat. But the real answer is not to slow AI down or tell people to stop worrying. The answer is to redesign work so AI removes repetitive work, not human worth. Why workers are anxious about AI AI anxiety is not only fear of losing a job tomorrow. It is the deeper fear that your value is becoming unclear. If your day is full of repeatable tasks, admin work, first drafts, formatting, searching, and routine analysis, then of course AI feels threatening. The more work is built around repetition, the easier it is to imagine automation taking it over. That is why this moment feels personal. It is not only about tools. It is about identity. Pew’s data shows workers are more worried than hopeful about AI’s future at work, and a similar share say they feel overwhelmed. That means this is no longer a niche concern. It is a mainstream work emotion. The problem is not AI alone. It is bad work design. For years, white-collar work has buried people in low-value activity. Asana says 60% of the average knowledge worker’s time is spent on work about work, not actual skilled execution. Atlassian says teams waste 25% of their time searching for answers. So before AI even arrived, many jobs were already overloaded with repeatable friction. That is why AI feels so confusing. If a job is overloaded with repetitive work, AI can do some of that faster. But if organizations do not clearly say where human value now moves, people are left with one scary conclusion: “If AI can do this part, what is left for me?” What the developer example makes clear Take a developer again. Today, a big part of the job can get lost in: finding context -> understanding messy requirements -> checking old tickets -> reading scattered messages -> rebuilding decisions from different tools -> repeating setup steps that do not really use deep engineering skill. That is exactly the kind of work AI should absorb. In the future, AI should prepare the ground: gather the context -> summarize the history -> connect standards -> highlight conflicts -> generate repeatable scaffolding. Then the developer should do more of the work only a human should own: so...
New AI world: Fear of the unknown meets fear of missing out | State | fairfieldsuntimes.com
The Goldman report sees potential AI displacements for knowledge and creative workers, management consultants, graphic designers and fast food restaurant workers.
The expert assessed the fears of workers about the replacement of ...
Igor Ivanov, a political scientist and researcher of political communications, on Tuesday, March 31, assessed the concerns of company employees about the replacement of artificial intelligence (AI). In conversation with the agency RuNews24.Ru The expert noted that the fear that technology will replace people accompanies almost every wave of development, but it was precisely such changes that ...
