Artificial Intelligence: Understanding Worker Sentiment and the Role of Employer Clarity

Artificial intelligence is here. What exactly that means for the workplace is being figured out every single day by employees and employers. Knowing they’re in this together is a key step towards maximizing this technology at work.

Here at ADP Research, we asked workers three questions about AI and they gave us a conflicting set of answers.

The People at Work 2025 report from ADP Research, which is based on a survey of nearly 38,000 adults on six continents, examined workers’ level of excitement about AI’s potential and their fear of its impact. We found big differences of opinion by age, type of work, and sector.

Work type

We found distinct differences in AI sentiment by work type.

Knowledge workers, a group that includes programmers, academics, and engineers, were by far the most likely to believe AI will have a positive impact on their jobs. But knowledge workers were more worried than cycle or skilled task workers that they would be replaced by AI.

As a group, knowledge workers appear to be simultaneously hopeful about AI and wary of its ultimate impact. These workers also were the most likely to say they don’t know what the future will bring.

Taken together, these responses might reflect a fear of the unknown.

Age

The younger the worker, the more likely they were to express both optimism and concern about artificial intelligence. Workers who are early in their careers might be considering how AI advancements will affect them in the long term.

North America led the world in the share of younger workers who were unsure about the future. In the United States and Canada, about one-fourth of workers younger than 27 said they had no idea how AI will change their jobs.

Late-career workers, especially those 55 and older, seemed to show the most indifference toward AI.  Only 9 percent of workers 55 and older think AI will have a positive impact, compared to 20 percent of workers under 40; yet only 5 percent of those 55 and older are worried about losing their jobs to AI, compared to 13 percent of those under 40. They might feel that AI will have little impact on the years they have remaining in their jobs.

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Sector

Workers in technology services, information, and finance and insurance had the most positive outlook on how artificial intelligence might affect them and their jobs.

These three sectors tend to be early adopters of technology. They prize efficiency and can leverage small gains to their competitive advantage. AI has great potential to help these employers by enhancing automation, speeding data analysis, and improving decision-making.

Three sectors— personal services, transportation and warehousing, and health care and social assistance—had the largest share of workers with negative sentiment toward artificial intelligence. These sectors rely heavily on human interaction and personalized services, which might contribute to worker apprehension. People in these jobs might worry that AI could compromise the quality of personal service. They could perceive it as a threat to jobs or a disruption to established workflows.

And because these sectors require a human touch, workers might be more cautious about AI as they weigh the complexities of introducing the technology into highly relational environments.

Employer takeaways

Artificial intelligence presents significant opportunities for efficiency and innovation. It also necessitates careful consideration of its impact on workers, the workplace environment, and existing practices.

As employers navigate this transformative landscape, it will be crucial for them to address employee concerns and foster a clear understanding of the benefits of AI technology. By doing so, they can create a more inclusive environment, one that mitigates employee fear and maximizes the potential of AI as a collaborative tool in the workplace.

Fear can lead to heightened stress in workers. Survey respondents who were scared about being replaced by AI technology were two times more likely than unruffled respondents to say they experience high stress at work. Even workers who had no idea how AI will change their jobs were nearly twice as likely to be highly stressed.

Employee turnover presents another risk for employers. More than 30 percent of workers who felt strongly that they could be replaced by AI said they were actively looking for or interviewing for a new job, compared to only 16 percent of respondents who were less scared.

People at all levels, from individual contributors to managers, expressed uncertainty about how AI will impact their jobs. Upper managers had the largest share of respondents who said they had “no idea” how AI will affect them.

It would benefit employers to take time to reassure workers and be open about expectations. Few, if any of us, really know for sure what change artificial intelligence will bring to the workplace. As organizations navigate the transformative arrival of AI, addressing employee concerns and fostering a clear understanding of AI’s benefits will be crucial.

Read More: AI in the Workplace is Not Doing Enough to Close the Gender Pay Gap

[To share your insights with us, please write to psen@itechseries.com ] 

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