Synthetic intelligence has been touted for its skill to automate routine, high-volume duties at file velocity. However a brand new report finds the know-how can be creating stress between employers and workers over its deployment.
Whereas 80% of human assets decision-makers polled by MetLife stated AI instruments are a part of on a regular basis duties, and 83% stated AI helps workers work quicker, 67% stated AI is “creating new factors of friction and distrust,” in keeping with a brand new report from the monetary companies agency.
“We heard concern about job dislocation,” stated Todd Katz, head of U.S. group advantages at MetLife. “We heard concern about the necessity to adapt, and in order that’s creating friction — friction between the employer and the worker.”
Greater than half of workers surveyed, 61%, stated they’re fearful in regards to the moral and security dangers of AI use, together with bias, misinformation and a scarcity of accountability. Practically as many, 59%, are involved that it’ll make their jobs out of date and 24% really feel that they should compete with AI at work, MetLife discovered.
The MetLife research compiled knowledge from three surveys: two with about 2,500 workers every, performed in October 2025 and January 2026, and one other in October 2025 with about 2,500 advantages decision-makers from giant, medium and small firms.
How employers can alleviate employee issues
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As AI reshapes careers by automating routine duties, specialists say it’s extra vital for employees to develop “human” abilities like strategic considering.
Assuaging employees’ issues has an excellent deal to don’t solely with know-how itself, but in addition how firms introduce it and put together their workforce for it, stated Nela Richardson, chief economist for HR and payroll companies firm ADP.
“It takes enterprise processes. It takes change administration. It takes leveling up your workforce, upskilling your expertise, in order that they’re prepared for these instruments as properly,” she stated.
Some workers is probably not up for the duty but. One other latest survey, from BetterUp Labs and Stanford Social Media Lab, discovered that 53% of U.S. employees stated they’d turned in “workslop” — which the analysis defines as “AI-generated content material that appears good, however lacks substance.”
“It is low effort, low high quality on the a part of the one that is creating the AI-generated work, and it shifts the burden from the sender to the receiver,” stated Kate Niederhoffer, a social psychologist and chief scientist at BetterUp Labs, a analysis arm of the digital teaching platform.
About 40% of employees stated they’d acquired “workslop” within the final month, in keeping with the survey, which was performed in September.
“It is including additional burden, additional time, additional toll, additional judgment and a decrease chance of working with the people who find themselves creating it. That is actually the issue right here,” Niederhoffer stated. It makes it tougher for colleagues to collaborate, she stated, and may also contribute to distrust.
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