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

When someone we love dies, we understand why grief hurts: someone mattered, and their absence reshapes our world.

Mourning allows us to honor what was, mark what ended, and listen for what our grief reveals about what we value.

That recognition can guide what we carry forward.

Death, however, is not the only loss humans grieve.

While technological rupture differs from bereavement, the rapid, widespread adoption of AI is setting the stage for a psychological crisis of grief across corporate America.

In boardrooms and breakrooms alike, employees are silently grappling with unprecedented new anxieties: What becomes of the skills I spent years mastering? Have I lost confidence in my colleagues when I question whether AI is responsible for their work? Am I myself losing the muscle to think critically without AI? Will my function become obsolete? Behind these questions are several forms of grief—a mourning of lost professional identities, eroded trust, and envisioned career paths that are vanishing overnight.

As the co-founder and executive director of Reimagine , an organization dedicated to helping individuals and communities navigate grief collectively, I recognize a deeply familiar dynamic unfolding in today’s AI-driven workplace.

Whenever human beings face fundamental loss, whether personal or systemic, a common instinct is to try to turn away from it or suppress it.

But if we don’t integrate our grief in healthy ways, it has negative consequences for our physical and mental health, and it can often lead to destructive action.

Recent corporate data confirms that this tension is already fracturing company cultures.

An August 2026 Gallup study revealed that employees at organizations deploying AI extensively were significantly more likely to report a worsening workplace culture.

Meanwhile, Microsoft’s Work Trend Index found that 53% of workers worried that relying on AI for critical tasks made them look replaceable, while over half admitted to hiding their AI usage from management entirely.

When leaders fail to acknowledge the rising grief, or actively dismiss it as standard “employee resistance to change,” they miss the core issue.

Failure to address these non-death workplace losses carries severe organizational costs.