63% of workers see AI making the workplace ‘less human’

IT and business leaders are full steam ahead on AI, with an eye toward improving efficiency and productivity. Employees, however, foresee AI use impacting workplace culture, as 63% say it will “make the workplace feel less human” and 57% say AI will reduce human skills, according to the AI and Workplace Humanity Report from Resume Now.

Workers also believe the implementation of AI will devalue human work (43%), rendering the workplace a “cold, machine-driven environment” (20%) — only 16% say AI will make the workplace more human. Concerns around AI’s impact on critical thinking skills and human connection are growing, and its fast adoption is pushing employees to question exactly how AI will be implemented moving forward. Leaders will need to take workplace culture into consideration with any AI strategy to address these concerns.

“Leaders must be clear and transparent with their AI strategy and principles. And employee voice can be a critical input to that strategy,” says Kaelyn Lowmaster, director analyst of the Gartner HR Practice. “Create channels for employees to surface concerns, ask questions, and suggest AI use cases. Especially as AI-native employees enter the workforce, employees can be a valuable source of information about how to use emerging tools well — and what to avoid.”

Reinforce workplace culture to ease AI fears

Leaders looking to implement AI will need to maintain open lines of communication and transparency around AI and its impact to help get employees on board, even enthusiastic, about AI.

“Dedicated mentorship time, team-based projects, and in-person or hybrid touchpoints can help bring people together. These efforts help strengthen collaboration and sense of connection, so the focus stays on people, not just the technology,” says Megan Slabinski, district president of technology talent solutions at Robert Half.

It’s important to communicate the organization’s goals for AI and to have a clear strategy in place for its implementation. Employees will need reassurance that they have job security and that they won’t be laid off or made redundant in the place of AI. There’s a lot of conflicting news and chatter about AI and its impact on jobs across every industry, so you’ll need to take this into consideration when rolling out any new AI strategy.

“No organization can fully predict the future, but they can provide clarity on employees’ current value and share plans for how their roles will change in the near- to mid-term. Gartner research shows that degree of clarity, more than any other form of support an organization can provide, drives employees to use AI,” says Lowmaster.

Curbing potential culture problems stemming from AI

IT leaders should also build narratives around the positives of AI, sharing how it can boost productivity, while emphasizing the continuing need for human oversight.

“AI is accelerating how organizations process information, automate tasks, and make decisions faster. What it is not doing is replacing the need for human judgment, oversight, and accountability. AI may complete 80% or 90% of a workflow, but the final layer still requires people to validate outcomes, make decisions, and assume responsibility,” says Frank Antezana, CEO of iTech AG.

Employees have growing concerns about AI workslop, the result of undertrained employees using AI to create low-quality outputs that must then be edited or reworked by coworkers. AI is also infamous for making egregious errors at times, requiring human intervention to correct or render effective.

Leaders will need to identify where AI might impact human collaboration as well, trying not to replace the need for interoffice communication, Lowmaster says. For example, if employees are overly reliant on AI to “brainstorm and review their work,” there’s a chance they’ll collaborate less with coworkers on those tasks, she adds. Moreover, if AI “boosts individual employees’ efficiency,” they might start feeling “unsustainable pressure to hit elevated, AI-driven targets for speed or output.”

While Lowmaster acknowledges that “overreliance on AI tools” can sometimes lead to “cases of poor employee judgment or low-quality output,” one of the “biggest barriers” Gartner’s research has uncovered is an overall “lack of trust in the accuracy of AI-generated output.” When employees shift accountability to bots, this can create additional work for other employees who are left to check or redo AI-generated work.

“Any major tech shift can feel impersonal at first, but businesses will always need professionals who can apply the technology and collaborate across teams. Companies that position AI as more of a support tool, rather than a replacement, will likely see stronger employee interest,” says Robert Half’s Slabinski.