Managing Employee Fear around AI Adoption

May saw the first meaningful proliferation of AI ‘fear anecdotes’. For business journalists, it became chip shot content to write of people getting fired by AI, to white collar workers now walking dogs to mental health phone operators replaced by a chat bot. This fear came to the fore with two stories that offer a glance at battle lines to come. First, IBM announced that the company is pausing hiring for 7,800 ‘automatable’ jobs. This is impactful on its own as this automatable jobs category is rather large given the power of generative AI, and even marginally reduced labor cost can significantly change the competitive landscape. It also was met by a flood of fear about the implications for workers.

Read More: CNET Journalists Seek to Unionize, Saying AI ‘Threatens Our Jobs and Reputations’. (Bloomberg)

While IBM did this well, the fear and anxiety induced by AI automation was embodied in the Writers’s Guild of America striking over fear that major studios would automate their workers the moment they could. Such stories are leading to broad skepticism of AI, with widespread use of AI being a negative for prospective employees across all generational cohorts according to Morning Consult’s State of the Worker 2023 Report

Ken’s Take Away: Given that demographics, labor market stress, and competitive pressures are conspiring to make technological transformation critical, it is important to ensure that any AI adoption efforts are designed with the fears of employees in mind, so that AI doesn't accidentally exacerbate labor woes.

Instead of focusing on headline technologies (there is a joke in the industry that it's only AI on a powerpoint), emphasize the practical benefits to employees mentioned above. Also, given the increased expectation facing CEOs and disruption facing employees, providing cognitive clarity and stability (via training, educational resources, clear positions regarding how AI will affect your workforce) can avoid luddite responses to innovation that undermine the productivity advances of exciting tech.