Staff sabotaging AI rollouts over job security fears

Roughly a third of chief executives report they intend to use AI to cut headcount, a strategy he was sceptical of: “You can’t cut your way to success,” he said, arguing leaders who frame AI as a tool for differentiation, not headcount reduction, get a better response from staff.

Why are workers undermining AI adoption?

MacLennan’s answer sits inside a broader plateau in workforce mental health that Telus Health’s Mental Health Index (MHI) has tracked since it launched in April 2020. The MHI, scored out of 100 with 80 to 100 optimal and below 50 distressed, recorded 63.1 for the first quarter of this year – in the “strained” band, and a level MacLennan said is “essentially” the same as during the mid-2020 lockdowns.

Behind that score, 34 per cent of workers are at high risk of poor mental health, 35 per cent report feeling anxious, 28 per cent say they feel depressed, and 32 per cent say it is affecting their productivity.

MacLennan linked the plateau to a lingering physiological effect of the pandemic rather than new stresses alone. “Our ability to absorb new stresses has been fundamentally diminished by COVID and that extended stress and lockdowns,” he said, pointing to cost of living, geopolitical uncertainty and job security piling on top – AI chief among the newer pressures.

Nearly three in ten workers now report feeling helpless, while roughly a third say they are more suspicious of colleagues’ motives and angrier than before.