Navigating AI Anxiety and the Evolution of Work
The Mercer 2026 Global Talent Trends report is here - and the tone is urgent, unsentimental, and business-first. Culture, talent, and leadership are now being evaluated primarily through a performance lens, and that pressure is shaping the employee experience in profound ways.
We had the unique opportunity to chat with Kate Bravery, Mercer’s Senior Partner and Global Leader of Talent Advisory - and key author of the report - about hot-off-the-press key trends to sit up and take notice of.
Key Takeaways:
Employee concern about AI displacing jobs jumped from 14% to 40% in two years, yet 75% haven't discussed AI's impact with their managers
Employee wellbeing collapsed from 66% to 44% thriving in the same period AI adoption accelerated
Only 30% of HR functions are leading AI-driven work redesign - missing the opportunity to make work more human
The path forward requires brave conversations, intentional work redesign, and leaders who can hold both digital fluency and emotional intelligence
Let’s dig in. The bottom line is we're at an inflection point.
Four years ago, organizations raced to implement AI, promising it would unlock productivity and free employees to do more meaningful work. Today, that optimism has given way to something more complicated - anxiety, distrust, and a widening gap between what leaders believe about AI, what HR leaders are prioritizing, and what employees are experiencing.
Mercer's 11th annual Global Talent Trends Report reveals a tension we're seeing play out in real time: AI has enormous potential to make work more human, but only if we're willing to confront the very real fears and design challenges standing in our way.
While it’s tempting to think this is a story about technology, it’s really a story about leadership, trust, and whether we have the courage to redesign work in ways that actually serve people - while embracing technology. Our conversation with Kate Bravery focused on a few key areas that we feel particularly concerned and passionate about regarding the evolution of work - and how to keep it human-centric.
Insight #1: The proximity paradox: Why those closest to AI are most concerned
Here's what should wake us up: concern about AI displacing jobs has jumped from 14% to 40% in just two years.
But the real insight is more nuanced. The report identifies the "proximity paradox" - the closer employees are to AI tools in their daily work, the more anxiety they feel about their job security and relevance. Senior leaders and front-line employees directly using AI aren't excited about efficiency gains. They're acutely aware of restructuring implications and questioning their place in the future organization.
Maybe you've felt this in your own company. The rolled-out AI tool that was supposed to streamline work but instead created uncertainty.
And then there’s the silence from managers who haven't addressed what any of this means: 75% of employees report they haven't had a recent conversation with their manager about how AI might change their work.
This isn't a technology problem. It's a leadership one.
Insight #2: Performance pressure meets human exhaustion
Only 44% of employees say they're thriving in health, wealth, and career - down from 66% just two years ago (and the lowest value in a decade).
The report makes clear that "exponential performance isn't just essential, it's existential." Organizations face relentless pressure to optimize output through human-machine teaming. The business case for AI-enabled productivity is compelling.
But here's the collision course: in the same period that AI adoption accelerated and performance expectations intensified, the number of people who feel they're actually thriving dropped by a third.
This isn't sustainable. You can't extract exponential performance from exhausted, disengaged people - no matter how sophisticated your AI tools are.
Insight #3: AI optimism has collided with organizational reality — and HR systems are the bottleneck
Despite widespread acknowledgement that AI has the potential to transform work, the productivity gains anticipated in the prior Talent Trends report largely failed to materialize.
That’s because core people systems—such as goal alignment, performance management, skills development, work design—are lagging the pace of work evolution and lack the “teeth” to enable agility and ultimately—performance.
This has created tension with executives and investors frustrated by slow progress on AI adoption and work redesign, while HR is still prioritizing retention and experience. The result is a widening expectation gap between the C-suite and HR about what truly drives performance and transformation.
Insight #4: Leadership isn’t about being ready for the future of work—it’s about helping other people feel ready for it
While technology is advancing at pace, the human system at work—how work is designed, how careers are talked about, how trust is built—has not kept up.
Leaders today are being asked to deliver exponential performance at the same time that employee thriving is at a ten-year low. That tension isn’t just the new reality of transformation—it’s the work of leadership now.
The organizations that will win aren’t the ones experimenting with the most AI tools, but the ones where leaders are redesigning work intentionally, removing friction, and helping people see themselves in the future.
This moment demands a shift in leadership identity:
From having answers to asking better questions.
From managing performance to designing the conditions where performance can emerge.
From protecting people from uncertainty to building trust by being honest about it.
In 2026, leadership isn’t about controlling change. It’s about making change survivable, meaningful, and ultimately motivating for the people who have to live it.
In an AI-shaped world, leaders don’t create value by having the answers. They create value by:
Redesigning work (what gets done by humans vs machines)
Removing productivity sappers (like meetings, friction, slow decisions)
Creating clarity and connection to purpose when work is fluid and evolving
This is a fundamental shift from managing people to architecting systems that allow people to perform at their best.
Ready for the work? Here's what you can do today:
Start with honest conversation, not implementation plans
Leaders need to build the muscle to hold brave spaces where people can voice fears, challenge assumptions, and work through what AI means for them. Not performative town halls. Real conversation where managers are equipped to listen, acknowledge uncertainty, and co-create the path forward with their teams.
Before rolling out another tool, create space for people to voice what's really happening. What are they afraid of? What would make them feel more equipped? What parts of their work feel meaningless that technology could eliminate?
Shift from AI deployment to work redesign
The question isn't "how do we implement this AI tool?" It's "how do we redesign work so that humans do what humans do best, and technology handles the rest?"
Focus on redesigning roles to be less draining and more fulfilling. If only 44% of your people are thriving, you have a bigger problem than productivity. Give people agency over how they work, not just what they produce.
Ground AI decisions in your values
Every choice about AI deployment should reinforce what you stand for. If you claim to value people but implement AI in ways that increase surveillance and reduce autonomy, employees will see right through it. Align your technology choices with your social and ethical commitments.
Develop leaders who can hold the paradox
The report identifies leadership competencies needed for 2030: strategic risk identification, digital fluency, empathy-driven coaching. But here's the tension - employees still prioritize managers who listen, support, and create belonging over those who master technology.
The future doesn't belong to leaders who choose digital fluency over emotional intelligence. It belongs to those who can hold both. Who can navigate the complexity of performance pressure and human need. Build leadership development programs that cultivate both capabilities, not separate tracks.
When technology meets intention to make work more human
The Mercer report paints a picture of the crossroads we're at. One path leads to organizations that use AI to extract more from already exhausted people, widening the gap between leadership optimism and employee reality. The other leads to workplaces where technology genuinely amplifies human potential.
Social justice inside business isn't just about DEI initiatives. It's about creating systems where everyone can thrive. Where the experience of work doesn't leave people depleted and questioning their worth. Where leaders have the courage to redesign work around human needs, not just business demands.
AI can make work more human. But only if we're willing to do the harder work of listening, redesigning, and leading with both conviction and empathy.
The question isn't whether AI will reshape work. It's whether we'll reshape it together, or let it happen to us.
To explore how your organization can redesign work in the age of AI, listen to our podcast Reimagining Work from Within, or reach out to learn more about our approach to creating equitable human experiences at work.
