(April 15): To bridge the artificial intelligence (AI) anxiety gap between leaders and employees, organisations need to move beyond an overemphasis on productivity and give workers clear direction on how to approach upskilling, rather than merely presenting it as the answer.

Dr Manju Appathurai, CEO and leadership psychologist at Mahat Advisory, said that the use of AI makes employees question their identity in the workplace and the current world as people begin to feel as if their worth is tied to efficiency.

Fears about the fading of one’s career may emerge while anxieties over the atrophy of critical thinking can arise from the constant offloading of cognitive tasks. Meanwhile, companies that promote upskilling as the solution without providing a clear roadmap do little to ease these worries or close the gap that exists between leaders and employees.

“The AI anxiety gap is between who we were as doers and who we must become as thinkers. No amount of upskilling is going to suffice because people have no direction on where to go,” she said, in the 'AI Anxiety Gap: Navigating Identity in the Age of AI' webinar hosted by digital mental health platform ThoughtFull.

Dr Manju suggests that leaders and human resources (HR) should move from a monitoring-based leadership to a more human-centric approach where the psychological effects that are experienced by employees should be addressed just as much as the monitoring of AI integration for productivity. 

“Leadership and HR mandate should be to move beyond merely upgrading skills. They must renegotiate this psychological contract that risk being broken. So we aren't just teaching people to use tools, but we are helping them find a new anchor for their self-worth, which isn't tied to merely execution of tasks.”

Jonathan Tan, founder and managing director of public relations agency VoxEureka, added that AI anxieties can also stem from employees who are craftsmen or creatives feeling as if AI is taking away their value for the sake of productivity.

“It’s the little things that start to rubble away at craftsmen. Some are not concerned about job losses, but losing their soul as an artist and giving up their sense of creativity. This happens when [a company has to] 'sell its soul' for survival,” he said.

Companies must then begin to balance the creative fulfilment of employees whilst also meeting client demands in efficiency from AI adoption in order to deliver a job and to prevent right-sizing.