The rapid adoption of artificial intelligence is prompting a form of workplace grief among employees in corporate America, with concerns ranging from lost professional identities to declining trust and fears that careers could disappear, according to a commentary from the co-founder and executive director of Reimagine.
The organisation, which helps individuals and communities navigate grief collectively, argues that technological disruption can create losses that are psychologically significant even when no one has died.
Workers are questioning whether years spent developing particular skills still have value, whether colleagues’ work was produced by people or machines, and whether their own ability to think critically is being weakened by reliance on AI. Some are also worried that their roles may become obsolete.
Recent corporate data indicates that the unease is affecting workplace culture. An August 2026 Gallup study found that employees at organisations making extensive use of AI were significantly more likely to say their workplace culture was deteriorating.
Microsoft’s Work Trend Index found that 53% of workers feared that using AI for critical tasks made them appear replaceable. More than half also said they had concealed their use of AI from managers.
Why AI adoption is being linked to workplace grief
The Reimagine commentary says employers risk misunderstanding the problem if they dismiss these concerns as ordinary resistance to change. The losses involved can include professional mastery, confidence in colleagues, expected career paths and a sense of purpose at work.
Research by Reimagine, carried out with HarrisX, examined US adults’ experiences of loss unrelated to death. It found that major disruptions without adequate support could produce distress comparable to bereavement, including isolation, anger, distrust of institutions and physical symptoms such as sleep problems, fatigue, pain or illness.
The argument places responsibility on company leaders to create space for employees to discuss what they believe is being lost, rather than imposing optimism or treating acceptance of AI as inevitable.
Concerns about declining mastery could lead organisations to invest more in mentoring and practical learning. Fears over trust could prompt clearer rules on authorship, honesty and transparency, while dissatisfaction with poor-quality AI-generated work could underline the importance employees place on care, quality and human judgement.
Listening to staff would not mean halting technological progress, the commentary says. Employees should still receive transparency, meaningful support during the transition and a genuine say in decisions affecting their futures.
The proposed approach is to recognise the losses created by AI adoption and identify the values they reveal, allowing those values to be carried into a changing workplace rather than simply abandoned.
