AI adoption in the workplace is nearly universal. A strategy to support the people living through it is not.
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Just this week, top leaders in the AI race joined in statements warning that development must slow down, or risk catastrophic threats to humanity.
These warnings land on the heels of summer reports showing that:
In a recent Substack essay, HAA's co-CEO Stephen Massey cautions that the AI industry risks repeating a critical mistake from the COVID-19 pandemic by treating public resistance as a communications problem while failing to take people’s concerns seriously. Trust must be earned through action, Massey wrote, starting with giving people a meaningful say in the decisions that affect their lives.
How employers choose to engage can either mitigate or worsen AI-driven fears. Employers are one of the most trusted institutions in the country, but as more companies roll out a technology fraught with public skepticism, that trust is on the line. Prioritizing efforts to maintain worker trust is essential to long-term business success.
“Every business transformation is ultimately a collection of personal transformations,” said Massey. “A company does not adopt AI. Its people do.”
Last month, HAA surveyed a panel of 37 HR, benefits, and corporate wellness leaders across a range of company sizes and industries in our network. The resounding consensus is that the race to deploy new AI technology is outpacing any real strategy to support the humans who have to use these tools, and this gap is putting organizations (and their workers) at risk.
Almost every panelist we surveyed (95%) said their organization has implemented AI tools, but less than one in five reported their organization has done a full systematic rollout with any tracking in place. Most panelists told us their organization is either still early in its AI rollout (43%) or that employees are using AI tools on their own without any company-wide strategy in place (32%).
That gap between adoption and strategy is already showing up in employees’ day-to-day experience. Even without formal tracking in place, panelists said employees are surfacing anxieties and frustrations about AI in the workplace, including:
Employers can start to bridge this gap by giving people greater clarity on how AI fits into their work. To maintain trust, it’s important that “employees know AI supports decision-making rather than completely replacing human judgment, especially for important decisions involving hiring, performance, pay, or promotions,” one panelist told us. Panelists said policies on AI use should be backed by clear governance, accountability, and specific guidance on when AI use is not appropriate.
Employees also need real training, expert access, and hands-on time; one-time tutorials aren’t enough. Panelists noted the need for recurring touchpoints, including regular sessions on new tools and use cases, a go-to person for questions, and hands-on practice tied to people’s actual jobs to build capability and confidence.
Encouragingly, most panelists (68%) could identify at least one step that their company’s leadership has taken to help manage AI-driven changes, such as investing in employee training (32%), communicating a clear vision or strategy (32%), allocating budget or resources (32%), and revising policies and governance related to AI use.
But according to our survey, these steps aren’t necessarily aligned with the support their employees need:
If trust is the goal, employees can’t simply be on the receiving end of an AI strategy. Panelists emphasized that employees must be involved from the very beginning and throughout the rollout process. Company leaders should also gather employee feedback along the way and act on what they learn.
Transparency about impact matters, too. Panelists advised company leaders to tell employees early how AI will change their roles and responsibilities, rather than letting them find out after the fact.
They also recommended giving employees room to experiment without pretending every AI application will work. As one panelist told us, psychological safety is key: “We’re seeing better adoption and wiser use of AI capabilities when department leaders encourage teams to test out AI usage for specific projects and then report back whether the results were favorable or if they did not yield a useful outcome. There are no penalties if teams identify with the latter option; what’s been important is building a culture where iteration and testing are encouraged, and there is safe space to dialogue about the effectiveness of such interventions.”
Most (86%) panelists reported their organizations have taken steps to support employees in preparation for AI adoption. But less than half (41%) are tracking how employees are actually using AI tools, and even fewer (19%) are doing anything to assess AI’s impact on employee mental health or well-being.
About half (51%) of panelists said there is no clear ownership for tracking and responding to AI’s impact on employee health and well-being.
At the same time, employees are raising concerns that extend well beyond learning how to use the technology. Panelists reported hearing concerns about privacy and confidentiality; bias affecting performance reviews, hiring, or other personnel decisions; job displacement; deskilling; and even AI’s environmental impact.
Organizations need to empower and resource someone to own the human side of AI adoption in the same way IT owns the systems. That means tracking not only whether and how employees use AI, but how the technology is affecting their work and well-being, and responding to what employers learn.
It also means investing in data privacy and security. Surveyed HR and benefits leaders said privacy and security concerns are among the top issues coming to their desk. Employees need to know their organization has a plan to protect them.
Ultimately, policies, training, and employee engagement will only go so far if employees don’t see evidence that the technology is actually making their working lives better.
That makes it important to highlight stories that show genuine benefit. One panelist shared from their own experience: “[AI] is helping us be more efficient at our job. We are becoming more creative, too. With the extra time we have, we are building entire libraries in departments where none existed before.”
But employers also have to be honest when tools aren’t working. Creating space to acknowledge failures, unintended consequences and employee concerns can itself be part of building trust.
“Institutions lose the public when they ask people to bear the costs of new technology without showing they understand, or care, what those costs mean for people’s lives,” Massey said. “Employers still have a chance to earn trust by giving workers a meaningful say in how AI changes their work. But that window is closing quickly as public skepticism and anti-AI sentiment become increasingly prevalent.”
Building trust in AI is not only about implementing it well. Employers must also consider their role in protecting workers from broader societal risks. Most panelists believe that in the next 1 to 2 years, AI will present risks to cybersecurity (87%), political instability (65%), and erosion of institutional trust (56%). And nearly half (48%) believe that AI will contribute to further economic uncertainty.
That means the human side of an AI strategy can’t be treated simply as change management. Employees are watching not only whether their employers help them use AI, but how their organizations respond to the consequences that come with using it.
“Better messaging cannot create trust," Massey said. "Trust has to be earned through how an institution operates.”
HAA’s June 2026 Insights were collected from a survey panel of 37 leaders in HR & benefits and corporate health & wellness who participate in HAA’s Research Panel. They represented a diverse mix of large (35%), medium (22%), and small (43%) U.S. employers. Collectively, their organizations reach over 375,000 workers across a wide range of both service and labor industries.
Leaders in HR, benefits, health and safety, and corporate wellness are invited to join HAA’s research panel, where you’ll share your expertise and insights to help inform free resources that support your efforts in workplace health.
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