Your Team Is Anxious About AI. Here’s How to Talk to Them About It.
During the pandemic, leaders learned that they had to figure out how to keep their teams gelled even when they had no idea what the heck would happen day to day. And many of us realized something beautiful: that showing a little more vulnerability and openness to the grey areas was exactly what our people needed. For a brief moment in time, leaders were allowed to talk about what they didn’t know.
Although AI (thank goodness) does not pose a threat to our mortality, the majority of Americans fear its impact, and no one can question the disruption it’s already brought. That’s why once leaders have developed awareness of their own emotions, the next step is guiding their teams through their AI anxiety.
This requires acknowledging a difficult truth: You cannot promise stability. You cannot promise that roles, tasks, or structures will remain unchanged. You cannot promise that AI will spare your function or industry.
But you can promise clarity, transparency, and an open dialogue about the impact of change. Anxiety, suppressed emotions, and fear can negatively impact team performance and morale. While times of huge uncertainty demand many different leadership skills, research shows that leaders who emphasize frequent, iterative, transparent communication, are open about what they do and do not know, and who share news even when it isn’t great can help alleviate negative feelings. Creating psychological safety starts with the ability of a team to speak openly without fear of judgement or shame and discuss challenging topics in a productive way. Here are four steps to manage your team’s AI anxiety, even when you can’t promise everything will turn out okay.
Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway
No one knows exactly where AI transformation is heading, what the workplace will look like, or whether we will still have our jobs in one year or five. However, it’s powerful for your team to see you embrace your own anxiety and uncertainty, while moving from fear into action. It normalizes their own feelings and increases confidence in you as their leader.
This isn’t as hard as it might seem; we can only move through anxiety when we accept its presence. Research by Ranjay Gulati at Harvard Business School shows that our internal narrative—or mindset—helps determine our ability to face uncertainty with courage. Great leaders have never denied their fear. They admit they are anxious, understand why they are anxious, and choose to move ahead nonetheless.
The future is uncertain. People are scared. And that’s okay to say out loud. Decades of research on psychological safety affirm that honest, transparent conversations build trust and create a sense of shared purpose. Admitting to your team something like, “Wow, AI seems to be getting smarter every day,” or “ChatGPT scares me,” fosters connection and shared resilience by saying, “You’re not the only one.”
Create a Container and Have Good Conversations
By actively examining the questions surrounding AI implementation, we gain more agency. At the leadership and coaching company BetterUp, director of AI transformation Lee Gonzales uses the metaphor of shifting from being an AI “passenger”—or someone who passively watches technology—to becoming an AI “pilot,” who actively steers how to use these tools. And becoming a pilot starts with talking about our feelings about AI.
We must talk about AI if we’re going to use it well. Disruption and AI expert Charlene Li recommends listening to the “question behind the question” when we discuss AI. She writes: “Behind every ‘How does this work?’ is a more vulnerable question. Your employees may wonder if they’re still needed, what their purpose is if AI replaces key tasks, and what value they have to your organization.” It’s the leader’s job to tease out these questions from employees, honor them, and attempt to answer them as best as they can, even if they don’t have all the answers.
Talking is a powerful action leaders must commit to. For instance, Li suggests starting a dialogue with team members about identity, purpose, and value in an AI-augmented world after AI training sessions.
It’s tough to talk about emotions and AI in the middle of a rushed meeting or overstuffed check-in. These conversations can happen in an everyday context, but they should have time and attention dedicated to them. What they really need is a container.
In psychology, a “container” is an environment, meeting, or conversation that safely holds big emotions. The idea is that people can bring the tough stuff into the container, because the container itself is a designated environment that can support honest conversations without external consequences or judgement back “in the real world.”
Every container needs a facilitator, someone to intentionally create a space where people feel safe to say what they mean and explore ideas and emotions. That’s you as the leader. You can create a container in regular meetings, or you can create special meetings or 1:1s that help people move through their uncertainty, anxiety, or anger in a safe and constructive way. Here’s how to start:
1. Frame the work. You can set an intention for the conversation, such as: “We’re implementing big changes with AI. This can bring up complicated emotions—I certainly have them. I think that if we’re honest about the feelings AI brings up for us, we’ll be stronger as a team.”
Set a dedicated time and encourage people to be present in the conversation. This is not a conversation about creating action steps or concrete to-dos, although that may come later.
2. Establish some rules of play for the conversation. Encourage different points of view and acknowledge that while this can be an emotional topic, people won’t be judged for their feelings. Ask your team to respond productively to comments and not to shut others down; use “I” statements. (For a great primer on how to have a psychologically safe conversation at work, check out this article.)
3. Be honest about your own feelings about AI, including the anxious ones. This approach fosters connection and shared resilience by saying, “You’re not the only one, but we can figure this out together.”
Here are some questions to ask yourself when creating a container:
Am I grounded enough to have this conversation and if not, how can I ground myself?
What level of vulnerability will help the team open up, without making people feel uncomfortable?
What can I tell my people that’s true?
What can’t I tell them because I don’t know, or what I know is confidential?
How can I make space for what’s uncertain?
How can I encourage different points of view and allow others to be heard?
What do I want us to gain from this conversation? What will make it a success?
Creating a container is simple, but never easy. You are not your team’s therapist, but you can hold conversations that help your team move through AI anxiety—or, alternatively, you can bring in an expert like a coach or someone skilled in professional development.
Take Committed Action
Of course, it’s not enough to uncover the emotions around AI transformation and do nothing. Your people may not expect you to promise them their job for life, but they expect you to have their backs in the midst of change. Taking action and getting curious are two of the best ways to manage AI anxiety.
So offer a clear next step. AI is being haphazardly implemented by many organizations in a way that weakens trust, which is a strong value for many of us. As leaders, we can help buttress trust even when we have little control over macro decisions. Illustrate how you’re going to figure out this AI thing, together. Maybe that’s through shared learning sessions, hackathons, or time together to just ask vulnerable questions and hash things out. Maybe it’s setting up a system to track, measure, and share how AI is making work better, and ways that it’s frustrating.
Learning is based on curiosity. If the situation warrants, you can equip people to learn new skills. In your container, be honest about potential consequences and intervene early to give your people the tools they might need to stay employed. HR expert Enrique Rubio says: “What worries me is that some companies already know which jobs are likely to disappear, but they are not saying anything. They are not giving people time to prepare or explore other options. They are not offering skill-building support or even a heads-up.” Instead, says Rubio, they are waiting until the last possible moment to deliver the bad news. That kind of silence causes harm. It erodes trust. Someone leaving your company to pursue a new opportunity is difficult. But it is a far better option for them than being told that their role will be replaced by AI with no alternatives.
After discussing values, be clear about how to take action that supports your values if something is unacceptable. Knowing that the ubiquity of Gen AI might conflict with our values of professionalism and craft, for example, teams can set up shared norms around guardrails for AI use in their jobs. They can build in oversight and accountability to ensure that humans are making the final decisions. Rubio suggests: “Tell your managers what they can use AI for, but establish that ultimately they are responsible for decisions and work product. AI cannot make final decisions.”
Continue to Make Space and Repeat the Process, Over and Over.
AI anxiety can’t be solved in one conversation, and your team will continue to have strong feelings about it. I encourage you to make time for these conversations consistently and meaningfully. This could be a gift not just to your team, but to yourself. After all, when was the last time you felt like you had space for your thoughts? Space to have a real conversation? Saïd Business School fellow Megan Reitz and researcher John Higgins write that the very best leaders allow themselves and their colleagues to inhabit spacious mode, “in which people pay attention more expansively, without hurry, making them more receptive to relationships, interdependencies, and possibilities… Spacious mode leads to critical benefits in the workplace, such as gaining insight into challenges, thinking strategically, spotting opportunities, building relationships, and sparking joy and motivation.”
The sprint to “win at AI” preoccupies our government, our companies, and our leadership mandates and OKRs. Few are taking any time to pause and reflect. AI dominance might be a race, but we know that the very best competitors care for their minds and bodies while competing—they reflect, review their performance, and decelerate.
Understand the emotions AI surfaces, identify the values underneath your emotions, and choose actions that align with those values. Start with yourself, then create containers where people can talk honestly, ask vulnerable questions, and take committed action together: reskilling, setting norms, and mapping what you know about the future. Be transparent about what you know and what you don’t, keep humans accountable for decisions, and help people shift from AI passengers to AI pilots. Most of all, make space and repeat the process, so you can normalize initial reactions, build trust, and sustain a shared purpose through ongoing disruption. If there were ever a change that needed some good, open conversations, AI transformation is it.
As leaders, we have the power to slow down for just a bit and make space, for uncomfortable emotions and for anxieties, yes, but also to pause and consider what’s possible for a better future.