I run an organization dedicated to collective grieving. I recognize a familiar dynamic with AI in the workplace

When someone we cherish departs, we comprehend why grief weighs heavily upon us. Grief enables us to commemorate what once was, acknowledge the end, and listen to what our sorrow reveals about our values. That understanding can illuminate what we wish to retain. Death, however, is not the sole cause of human sorrow. As AI swiftly and extensively infiltrates corporate America, an unprecedented psychological crisis of collective grief is emerging.

In both boardrooms and breakrooms, employees silently contend with mounting anxieties: Will the skills I honed over years become obsolete? Has my confidence in my peers diminished, knowing AI may have contributed to their work? Am I losing the ability to think critically without the assistance of AI? Could my role become obsolete?

These questions give rise to various forms of grief, such as the mourning of lost professional identities, eroded trust, and vanishing career trajectories. As co-founder and executive director of Reimagine, an organization devoted to assisting individuals and communities through collective grieving, I discern a strikingly familiar pattern emerging in the contemporary AI-driven workplace.

When human beings face profound loss, be it personal or systemic, a typical response is to either avoid it or repress it. Yet, if we neglect to process our grief in healthy ways, it can have detrimental effects on our physical and mental well-being, potentially leading to destructive actions. Recent corporate research reveals that this tension is already fracturing company cultures.

An August 2026 Gallup survey found that employees at firms heavily utilizing AI are significantly more likely to report deteriorating workplace environments. Furthermore, Microsoft's Work Trend Index discovered that 53% of workers fear relying on AI for critical tasks makes them appear replaceable, while over half admitted to concealing their AI usage from management.

When leaders fail to recognize the escalating grief or outright dismiss it as typical "employee resistance to change," they overlook the core issue. Failure to address these non-death workplace losses incurs significant organizational costs. Reimagine's own recent study, conducted in collaboration with HarrisX, delves into the experiences of U.S. adults facing non-death loss.

The findings indicate that unsupported major disruptions lead to distress comparable to grief from death. The reported consequences encompass high levels of isolation, anger towards others, distrust of institutions, and physical symptoms like sleep disturbances, fatigue, pain, or illness—symptoms comparable to those experienced by individuals grieving a loss of a loved one.

Effectively guiding through the AI transition necessitates leaders transcending forced optimism and creating space for employees to articulate what they fear losing. By heeding what people grieve, leaders can pinpoint the values at risk and devise new ways to uphold them as work evolves. These insights can guide practical decisions.

Grief over lost mastery may prompt organizations to invest more in mentorship and hands-on learning. Grief over eroding trust could result in clearer norms around authorship, honesty, and transparency, fostering a more candid and connected workplace. Grief over subpar AI-generated work may underscore the importance we place on quality, care, and human judgment.

When leaders acknowledge the authenticity of the grief, subsequent steps such as recognizing what is being lost can make employees feel seen rather than misunderstood, as if they are failing or becoming obsolete. Listening to employees does not entail halting progress or absolving employers of responsibility. Workers are still entitled to transparency, meaningful transition support, and a genuine voice in decisions impacting their futures; thoughtful recognition should aim to secure acceptance of decisions already made, not merely to secure compliance.

Our task extends beyond processing what AI takes and moving forward. It involves naming what we are losing, listening for the values our grief reveals, and giving them new form. This is how grief can restore agency at work: not by reverting work to its former state, but by helping us shape what comes next.