AI and the Future of Workplace Wellbeing

27 May

blindsided

This is how you might be feeling when it comes to the age of Artificial Intelligence (AI). It feels like we stepped out of the pandemic and into a history-making, world-changing era that is moving faster than the speed of light and will completely revolutionise the way we live. This is a good thing, isn’t it? In trying to be balanced. I’m both excited and worried about where we will go next with it.

In this article, I explore AI from the point of view of workplace wellbeing, and I’m considering this as almost a ‘live document’ as I sift through my own thoughts on the topic, and explore how AI might impact others as we move forward. Because I feel like we haven’t reached the point where we can draw firm conclusions. We can look at it theoretically, but we have to go through it in practice.

I grew up in a time when telephones sat on the wall, not in pockets. We dialled each number, waiting patiently to be connected through to a friend. It was a time when the lofty Encyclopaedia Britannica was the prime source of high-speed information. And computers, when they came along, sat as big monochrome boxes on a desk, fed with the unforgettable sounds of dial-up screeching.

And yet, here we are. In the Blue Age of AI*.

AI is reshaping the way we work, lead, and manage wellbeing. But is it helping us thrive - or simply changing the way we burn out?

AI tools can be used to automate mundane tasks, personalise wellbeing support, and even create space for shorter work weeks. But these positives are balanced by concerns like job displacement, unethical use, and the erosion of human connection. So how do we approach this, ethically and with humility?

1. Empowering People

With intention, AI can be used to enhance human potential. In workplace wellbeing, it offers personalisation, accessibility, and relief from cognitive overload. Here are some ideas of how AI might be used to support individual and team wellbeing:

Personalised support: AI-powered wellbeing platforms can tailor mental health tips, learning plans, and coaching programs based on real-time user input and behaviour patterns. These tools can give people the structure and personalised support that may take hours or days in real-life coaching.
Free up time: Automating repetitive or admin-heavy tasks gives people more time for strategic, creative, or purpose-driven work. 70% of workers said they would delegate as much work as possible to AI to lessen their workloads (Microsoft study, 2023), with the reminder that AI can work 24/7.
4-day week: With AI taking over routine tasks, my idealist self is excited about the potential of reducing working hours without cutting productivity. This can supporting both individual wellbeing and business performance (in contrast, my cynical self provides all the reasons why it won’t happen).
Social impact: AI can enable wellbeing innovations, such as chatbots for frontline carers or micro-coaching apps for dispersed teams, scaling support across sectors, roles, and creating opportunities for positive impact in rural and remote areas.
Accessibility and equity: AI has the potential to offer multilingual, neurodiversity-aware, or disability-accessible experiences that human-led systems struggle to perform consistently and well.

The big question we need to ask though is, are we using AI to free up our time, or simply creating more work for us to do?

2. Risks and Costs of AI

AI is powerful but, unfortunately, it's not neutral. if it’s used without thinking it through, it can be harmful, despite the good intentions. AI, without proper oversight, can inadvertently increase stress, create inequality, and disconnect people from wellbeing and purpose at work.

Loss of jobs and role clarity: Very soon, AI may be able to automate 300 million full-time jobs globally (Goldman Sachs, 2023). Even if roles aren't lost entirely, rapid change can shake someone’s sense of identity, create uncertainty, and increase stress.
Surveillance and psychological safety: AI monitoring tools at work (like keystroke tracking or sentiment analysis) can create mistrust between workers and leaders, this has the potential to reduce psychological safety and increase presenteeism.
Overreliance on automation: When providing personalised support, AI might provide recommendations (e.g. “take a break”) without the human self-awareness needed for personal decision-making. Wellbeing shouldn’t be automated. It’s a social, emotional, physical, spiritual and cultural process that is unique to each person.
Creativity gap: Not everyone wants to be highly creative or strategic at work. Some people find comfort and mental space in routine, predictable work. How will they feel to have their roles replaced by AI?
Human connection matters: Workplace belonging, empathy, and relational leadership, core to wellbeing, are hard to replicate with machines. Employees who feel disconnected from others are twice as likely to report burnout (Gallup State of the Global Workplace, 2024).

Productivity cannot replace connection, meaning, and purpose at work.

3. Human-Centred Design and Ethics

For AI to truly support wellbeing, its use must be intentional, inclusive, and human-first.

Bias and fairness: AI systems reflect the data they’re trained on, which means they can replicate bias. Workday is facing a collective lawsuit after its AI-driven hiring system potentially discriminated against candidates aged 40 years and over (HR Dive, 2025). In a 2018 study, facial recognition systems had error rates of over 30% for darker-skinned women, raising concerns about fairness in AI-driven workplace assessments (MIT, 2018).
Ethics and transparency: To ensure psychological safety remains high, organisations must be transparent about what AI tools are doing, what data they collect, and how they impact decision-making. This ensures informed consent is maintained.
Tech and trust: AI can support wellbeing structures, but human-to-human connection transforms workplace culture. AI should assist, not replace, leadership conversations, coaching, and empathetic communication.

AI should not replace human-centred leadership for the sake of higher productivity.

Taking Ownership

We’re in the midst of a new era - one I’ve coined the Blue Age. If implemented with intention, AI can help reduce burnout, create space for creativity, and build more humane workplaces. But if used purely to increase output, it risks compounding the very stress it aims to solve.

Wellbeing leaders, HR professionals, tech developers, and business owners all have a role to play. The question is not if we use AI, but how. Are we willing to take a step back and align it with human values, not just business goals?

To prevent burnout in the age of AI, we must make space for wisdom alongside automation, and recognise that true wellbeing isn’t just efficient, it’s empathetic and human-centred.

*In homage to the Golden Age, I’ve coined this new era, the Blue Age, where blue = the methods that brought us AI - ethernet, python, Java.

Sources:

1. ’Will AI Fix Work?’ Microsoft Work Trend Index, 2023, <https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/worklab/work-trend-index/will-ai-fix-work>
2. Christ, G., 2025, ‘Judge allows Workday AI bias lawsuit to proceed as collective action’, HR Dive, 19 May 2025, <https://www.hrdive.com/news/workday-ai-bias-lawsuit-class-collective-action/748518/>

3. Hardesty, L., 2018, ‘Study finds gender and skin-type bias in commercial artificial intelligence systems’, 11 Feb 2018, <https://news.mit.edu/2018/study-finds-gender-skin-type-bias-artificial-intelligence-systems-0212>

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Ruth Kent