How AI Is Fueling Anticipatory Anxiety At Work And What To Do About It
How AI Is Fueling Anticipatory Anxiety At Work And What To Do About It
Publish Date: 2026-07-04 03:00:00
Source Domain: www.forbes.com
How AI Is Fueling Anticipatory Anxiety At Work And What To Do About It
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If you are like me, you might enjoy listening to podcasts featuring some of the world’s brightest technology leaders. One day you might hear someone describe artificial intelligence as the greatest advancement in human history. The next day you hear another respected expert predict massive job losses or a future where many of the skills people have spent decades developing may no longer provide the same value. If I am honest, I have experienced anticipatory anxiety while listening to those predictions, and I suspect many of you have as well. With so many respected experts making dramatically different predictions about the future, it should not surprise you that anticipatory anxiety is growing at work as our minds try to process a future that has not yet arrived.
Why AI Is Creating Anticipatory Anxiety Before Most Jobs Have Changed
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Why AI Is Creating Anticipatory Anxiety Before Most Jobs Have Changed
Anticipatory anxiety is the stress people experience while thinking about future events that have not happened. That uncertainty allows anxiety to grow because your brain naturally wants answers that do not yet exist. Very few people agree on what will happen next. When the people closest to AI cannot fully agree on what comes next, it is understandable that employees, managers, and executives are struggling to make sense of it all.
This might lead you to spend more time trying to predict what will happen than preparing for it. Every new interview you listen to can become another piece of a puzzle that can never quite be completed because the picture keeps changing. You keep searching for certainty, hoping someone will finally tell you exactly what the future looks like. Instead, you find more opinions, more speculation, and more uncertainty. That cycle fuels anticipatory anxiety because your mind keeps searching for an answer that simply does not exist yet.
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