Overcoming Employee Fears of AI to Drive Business Value

Many employees are being tasked with utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) in their workflow, and they are growing increasingly concerned about the potential bias created by the technology or losing their jobs to it.

We spoke with Duncan Harris, Director in the Gartner HR practice, to better understand what’s behind employees’ fear of AI, and how leaders can help them overcome those fears to realize the full benefits of AI.

Journalists who would like to speak with Duncan regarding this topic can contact Mary.Baker@gartner.com or Gerri.Weinberger@gartner.com. Members of the media can reference this material in articles with proper attribution to Gartner. 

A: Our research has identified five unique fears employees have about how their company will apply AI:

• Job displacement due to AI that makes their job harder, more complicated, or less interesting
• Inaccurate AI that creates incorrect or unfair insights that negatively impact them
• Lack of transparency around where, when, and how the organization is using AI, or how it will impact them
• Reputational damage that occurs because the organization uses AI irresponsibly
• Data insecurity because the implementation of AI solutions puts personal data at risk 

When employees have these fears, they all have a substantial impact on either the engagement of the employee, their performance, or sometimes both. 

A: Organizations will see the biggest improvement in employee outcomes if they tackle all five employee fears, however they will also see gains if they address fears individually.

Here are ways organization leaders can address each unique employee fear:

• Become a partner on AI education to alleviate concerns of job loss. Employees are concerned about losing their job to AI; even more think their job could be significantly redesigned due to AI. Help employees understand the technology by offering training or development on a range of topics, such as: how AI works, how to create prompts and effectively use AI, and even how to evaluate AI output for biases or inaccuracies.
  
  
• Co-create solutions with employees to reduce fears about inaccuracy. Employees think that inaccuracy or bias created by AI will negatively impact their role or performance. Companies that show how AI works, provide input on where it could be helpful or harmful, and test solutions for accuracy can allay fears.
  
  
• Communicate context to avoid fear of the unknown. Few organizations are being fully transparent about how AI will impact their workforce. Organizations cannot just provide information about AI; they need to provide context and details on what risks and opportunities are influencing their AI policy, and how AI relates to key priorities and company strategy. 
  
  
• Democratize accountability for AI ethics to minimize reputational risk. Organizations need to formalize accountability through new governance structures that demonstrate they are taking threats seriously. For example, to boost employee trust in organizational accountability, some companies have deputized AI ethics representatives at the business unit level to oversee implementation of AI policies and practices within their departments.
  
  
• Operationalize employee data rights to ensure privacy. o increase worker trust, organizations should establish an employee data bill of rights to serve as a foundation for policies. The bill of rights should cover the purpose for data collection, limit the data collected to the defined purpose, commit to use data in ways that reinforce equal opportunity, and recognize employees’ right to awareness about the data collected on them. 

A: AI has the potential to create high business value for organizations, but employee distrust of the technology is getting in the way. Leaders involved in AI cite concerns about ethics, fairness, and trust in AI models as top barriers they face when implementing the technology.

Employee concerns are not fear of the technology itself, but fear about how their company will use the new technology.

If organizations can win employees’ confidence, the benefits will extend beyond just AI projects. For example, high-trust employees have higher levels of inclusion, engagement, effort and enterprise contribution. 

Garter clients can read more in the report: “5 Employee Fears of AI and How to Overcome Them.”  

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