AI anxiety: The workers who fear losing their jobs to artificial intelligence.

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In recent years, headlines about robots stealing human jobs have proliferated, and as generative AI tools like ChatGPT have quickly become more accessible and sophisticated. Some workers report starting to feel anxious about their futures and whether the skills they have will be relevant to the labour market in years to come. 

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Now, career coaches and HR experts are saying that although some anxiety might be justified, employees need to focus on what they can control. Instead of panicking about possibly losing their jobs to machines, they should invest in learning how to work alongside technology. If they treat it as a resource and not a threat, add the experts, they’ll make themselves more valuable to potential employers and feel less anxious.

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Although experts say some level of anxiety is justified, it may not be time to hit the panic button yet. Some research has recently shown fears of robots taking over human jobs might be overblown. Recognising the unique value of humans in the workforce, when compared to machines, is an important step in navigating the fears that surround this topic.

 

But as unnerving as the new technology is, it is a fact that workers don’t necessarily have to feel existential dread. People have the power to make their own decisions about how much they worry: they can either “choose to feel anxious about AI, or empowered to learn about it and use it to their advantage.

That Is to say, that humans will always have a role to play in business by performing the important work that robots cannot. This kind of work typically requires innate human qualities, such as relationship building, creativity and emotional intelligence.