AI Is Changing How We Feel About Our Work

Artificial intelligence finishes your sentences, writes emails, and processes information faster than you or I can, so while these tools are useful, they leave a strange sense of detachment.

There’s an emotional side to the latest and perhaps greatest technological revolution taking place now. It’s not only changing how we work, but what work means to us.

Tasks that once felt satisfying and purposeful, now seem hollow.

AI has made many jobs easier, but it is also changing how we feel about doing them.

How AI Affects the Way We Experience Work

Work has always been more than a way to earn money in my opinion. It gives us purpose, direction, identity, and a place in the world. When you meet someone new, one of the first things you ask is what they do for a living. That question carries assumptions about value and identity.

AI is altering this understanding.

The algorithms can now write, draw, analyse, and even make decisions. Skills that once defined entire professions are being performed by software. The impact is not only technical but emotional.

A study by Deloitte in 2024 found that almost seven in ten employees now doubt the long-term relevance of their current skills. This shows that the rise of AI is creating uncertainty about what people can contribute.

As work changes, so to does how we see ourselves. We are unsure whether their knowledge or experience still matters. The question that follows is simple but unsettling: “If machines can do my work, what am I here to do?”

The Cost of Automation

Automation is often described as progress, but it also removes parts of work that people value

When a task is automated, it might well save critical time, but it also changes the experience of working. The actions that previously required focus and effort are now completed in a heartbeat. The moments of trial and satisfaction that used to define progress have been replaced by convenience.

Take an editor who used to refine each sentence manually. Now, AI tools suggest edits before they are even requested. Or a designer who used to begin projects from scratch. Today, templates and generative software provide starting points.

In both cases, efficiency improves, but personal involvement fades, the result being a quiet sense of loss that often goes unnoticed.

AI can produce the same results, but it can’t replicate the feeling of doing the work yourself. The satisfaction of effort, the connection to outcome, and the small achievements that come from practice all become less visible and subsequently less motivating.

This change is subtle, and affects how people relate to their jobs. Work therefore is becoming less about mastery and more about management.

When Ease Replaces Effort

One of the promises of AI is that it removes the boring parts of work. So while it does save time, reduce error, and make complex tasks simple, in practice, this leads to another problem: ease without engagement.

When the demanding parts of a job disappear, the sense of progress can disappear with them. People begin to ask different questions. Instead of “How can I get better at this?”, they wonder “Why am I doing this at all?”.

Work becomes smoother but also less tangible. The parts that required patience, repetition, and attention begin to vanish. Those were the moments that gave meaning to the outcome, the crafts we wielded.

Ultimately, it means we should think carefully about how we use it. The challenge then becomes to make sure it doesn’t erase purpose entirely.

Finding Meaning

To keep meaning in work, you need to focus on what only humans can do. AI can process information, but it doesn’t care about what it produces. It can generate ideas, but it cannot judge which matter. As Rick Rubin famously once said, “The confidence I have is in my taste and my ability to express what I feel.”, which is clearly not something AI can claim.

The human parts of work - empathy, curiosity, and creativity - remain critically essential, and are qualities that can’t be programmed.

To adapt, we must change how we view AI, not as a replacement for people, but as a support system that allows us to focus on the areas where our contribution still matters. When AI handles repetitive work, people can spend more time on relationships, judgement, and problem solving.

Leaders must also encourage learning. The more people understand AI, the less they fear it. When workers see AI as a partner, they are more likely to find ways to use it that improve their work rather than diminish it.

And finally, we should value connection. As automation grows, genuine interaction between people becomes more meaningful. The small moments of conversation and collaboration that we get from random or planned moments in hallways, by the water cooler or in pubs over lunch are what keep teams grounded.

What Good Leadership Looks Like

Managers and business owners face a new type of leadership challenge that focusses on helping people stay motivated while using their new tools.

When AI changes workflows, it can also unsettle employees. They may worry about being replaced or becoming less important. Leaders who understand this emotional side of change will be more effective than those who focus only on efficiency.

Good leadership in this context means:

• Being open about how and why AI is being introduced.

• Involving staff in testing and deciding how to use new systems.

• Recognising the ongoing need for human skills such as communication, empathy, and initiative.

• Encouraging staff to use AI creatively rather than defensively.

Leadership in the AI era is about creating conditions where people can adapt with confidence, rather than controlling them.

The New Meaning of Work

AI is not only changing jobs; it is reshaping what we think work should feel.

If we’re no longer judged by how much we produce, then workers value must come from something else like human quality - the thought, care, and connection behind what we create.

The more AI takes on the mechanical side of work, the more we are reminded that our strength lies in the emotional one.

A Reflection

As AI races on faster and faster, stay focussed on the challenge to remain present in what it cannot touch.

We will continue to use machines to make work faster and more efficient, but we must also make time to notice the feelings that come with those changes, including the pride, the doubt, the loss, and the rediscovery of purpose.

Work will keep evolving. But its meaning is ours to define.

There’s no denying that AI is changing how we feel about what we do. Yet in the process, it offers a chance to evaluate why we do what we do, and to rebuild our work in a way that feels more human.