Feeling AI anxiety? Here’s what helps

It’s late. You should be asleep, but you’re scrolling: another headline about AI and jobs, another post from someone whose work has gone to software. You think about rent, the bills, the skills you spent years building. And then a quieter question you might not say out loud: if this goes, what am I for?

If that’s you, you’re not alone. In a Pew Research Center survey of over 5,000 US workers, published in February 2025, 52% said they were worried about how AI will be used at work in future, and a third felt overwhelmed. Among 18- to 29-year-olds, 40% felt overwhelmed.

This piece is part of Humans matter, our column about AI, work and the people underneath it all.

Why does AI anxiety feel so heavy?

Partly because it’s about money, and money is about safety: a roof, food, the people who rely on you. But it’s also about human dignity. Most of us find self-worth in what we do: work is where we feel useful, respected and part of something. That’s completely normal, and it’s why a threat to your work can feel like a threat to your dignity.

The not-knowing makes it worse. In a 2016 University College London study, 45 volunteers played a game in which they might get a mild electric shock. They were most stressed when the odds were 50:50, less so when a shock was certain. As the lead author, Archy de Berker, put it, it’s “much worse not knowing you are going to get a shock than knowing you definitely will or won’t”. A small lab study, but it helps explain why “maybe” can feel harder than bad news.

And if you’ve already lost work, the low mood that can follow is common. In 2009, psychologists Karsten Paul and Klaus Moser pooled more than 300 studies: about 34% of unemployed people had psychological problems, compared with 16% of people in work. Longer-term studies suggested job loss causes the distress, not the reverse. If you feel flat, ashamed or frightened, it isn’t a personal failing.

Will AI take my job? What the forecasts say

Forecasts are estimates, not facts. In January 2024, economists at the International Monetary Fund estimated that almost 40% of jobs worldwide are “exposed” to AI, and about 60% in advanced economies like the UK. Exposed doesn’t mean lost: the IMF reckoned roughly half of those jobs might gain from AI, while the other half could see less demand. The World Economic Forum’s 2025 survey of large employers expects 170 million jobs created and 92 million displaced by 2030. Behind any “net gain” are real people.

What’s happening now is uneven. Researchers at Stanford’s Digital Economy Lab, tracking payroll data since 2025, have found fewer 22- to 25-year-olds working in the most AI-exposed jobs than you’d expect (13% fewer in their first report, in August 2025), mainly because fewer young people are being hired. The team said it doesn’t see widespread, economy-wide job losses, and the data show a pattern, not proof of cause. And in September 2026 the Boston Fed reported that the share of US workers afraid of losing their own job to AI had roughly doubled in a year, to just over 10%.

Here’s what we think, and it’s a view, not a fact. Losing work with no safety net is a real harm, not a neat “transition”. As far as we can see, nobody yet has a convincing plan for who pays if large numbers of people lose income to automation. It’s reasonable to worry about that. It’s also true that nothing is settled yet.

What helps most? Talking to someone

There are plenty of tips for managing anxiety. The one that matters most is the simplest: tell another person how you really are.

Not a post. A person. A friend, a sibling, a former colleague in the same boat, someone from your uni or your street. You don’t need them to fix anything. Saying the fear out loud to someone who cares tends to make it smaller. In a small 2007 brain-imaging study at UCLA, Matthew Lieberman and colleagues found that simply putting feelings into words dampened activity in the amygdala, a part of the brain involved in threat.

It doesn’t have to be a heavy conversation, either. A walk, a coffee, a call where you end up talking about something else entirely. Time with people reminds you that you’re more than your job title, and that you’re not facing this alone.

If you can’t think who to call, that’s more common than you’d think, especially if work was where most of your social life happened. Start small: send a real message to the group chat, say yes to the next invitation, or look for people who share your interests.

When worry turns into something heavier

Sometimes anxiety starts carrying you. You can’t sleep, can’t see a way forward, or you’ve had thoughts of not wanting to be here. If that’s happening, please talk to your GP or doctor. In the UK and Ireland you can call Samaritans free, any time, on 116 123. Wherever you are, local crisis lines can help, and if you’re in danger right now, call your local emergency number. Asking for support isn’t failing. It’s what you’d tell a friend to do.

Why people, not productivity, carry us through

When everything feels uncertain, it’s natural to try to out-work the fear. The longest-running research on a good life points to people instead.

The Harvard Study of Adult Development has followed 724 men since 1938, and later their families. Its director, psychiatrist Robert Waldinger, told the Harvard Gazette in 2017: “The surprising finding is that our relationships and how happy we are in our relationships has a powerful influence on our health.” The men most satisfied with their relationships at 50 were the healthiest at 80, and more than money or fame, close relationships kept them happy. A 2010 review of 148 studies by Julianne Holt-Lunstad and colleagues linked stronger relationships to about a 50% greater likelihood of survival. Both show links, not proof, but the pattern holds.

What we take from it: you are more than your output, even on the days it doesn’t feel that way. A call with an old friend, a neighbour who checks in, a group that meets on Thursdays: on the hard days, these may be what holds you up. Our piece on why community matters now goes further.

If you’d like to meet like-minded people

Everconnected is a place to meet like-minded people, find community and have genuine conversations, one to one, by voice. It isn’t a crisis or mental health service. It’s free to join: create an account at app.everconnected.com, or get the app from the App Store or Google Play.

One small thing for tonight

You don’t have to solve the future of work tonight. Nobody can. Just message one person you trust: “Can we talk this week?” Whatever happens with AI, you’re still a person who deserves to be met by other people. That doesn’t change.

Questions people ask

Sources

1. Pew Research Center (2025, 25 February). U.S. workers are more worried than hopeful about future AI use in the workplace. Survey of 5,273 employed US adults, 7-13 October 2024. www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2025/02/25/u-s-workers-are
2. de Berker, A. O., et al. (2016). Computations of uncertainty mediate acute stress responses in humans. Nature Communications, 7, 10996. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4820542
3. University College London (2016, 29 March). Uncertainty can cause more stress than inevitable pain (press release). www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2016/mar/uncertainty-can-cause-more-stres
4. Paul, K. I., & Moser, K. (2009). Unemployment impairs mental health: Meta-analyses. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 74, 264-282. doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2009.01.001
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6. World Economic Forum (2025). Future of Jobs Report 2025: 78 Million New Job Opportunities by 2030 but Urgent Upskilling Needed to Prepare Workforces (press release, 8 January 2025). www.weforum.org/press/2025/01/future-of-jobs-report-2025-78-
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8. Federal Reserve Bank of Boston (2026, September). Worker survey: AI-related job-loss fears up sharply, more workers expect to save less. www.bostonfed.org/news-and-events/news/2026/09/artificial-in
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12. Samaritans. Talk to us on the phone: call 116 123 for free, any time. www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/contact-samaritan/talk-us
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