Artificial intelligence has been touted for its capability to automate routine, high-volume duties at report velocity. However a brand new report finds the expertise can be creating pressure between employers and employees 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 response to a brand new report from the monetary providers 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 nervous in regards to the moral and security dangers of AI use, together with bias, misinformation and an absence 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 Practically as many, 59%, are involved that it’ll make their jobs out of date and 24% really feel that they should compete with AI at work, MetLife discovered.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, carried out in October 2025 and January 2026, and one other in October 2025 with about 2,500 advantages decision-makers from giant, medium and small corporations.
How employers can alleviate employee issues
Boonchai Wedmakawand | Second | Getty Photographs
As AI reshapes careers by automating routine duties, consultants say it’s extra essential for staff to develop “human” expertise like strategic considering.
Assuaging staff’ issues has an awesome deal to don’t solely with expertise itself, but in addition how corporations introduce it and put together their workforce for it, stated Nela Richardson, chief economist for HR and payroll providers 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 will not be up for the duty but. One other recent survey, from BetterUp Labs and Stanford Social Media Lab, discovered that 53% of U.S. staff 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 who 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 staff stated they’d obtained “workslop” within the final month, in response to the survey, which was carried out in September.
“It is including additional burden, additional time, additional toll, additional judgment and a decrease probability of working with the people who find themselves creating it. That is actually the issue right here,” Niederhoffer stated. It makes it more durable for colleagues to collaborate, she stated, and can even contribute to distrust.
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