--- title: Workers Worry Ai Will Take Jobs—just Not Theirs description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. canonical: https://time.com/partner-content/charter/workers-worry-ai-will-take-jobs-just-not-theirs/ article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2026-09-29T10:30:01.667Z article:modified_time: 2026-09-28T22:19:04.823Z article:section: Charter og:title: Workers Worry Ai Will Take Jobs—just Not Theirs og:description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. 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Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0b07db30070979b6/6abae71bc57f563940611354/charter-ai-person-replacement-solstock-getty.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- The information presented here is created by Charter, independently from the TIME editorial staff.  Time charter * [ai](/partner-content/charter/tag/ai/) ## ai # Workers Worry Ai Will Take Jobs—just Not Theirs > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Subscription: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME is a general-interest news organization founded in 1923, reporting on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world. A TIME subscription provides full access to that journalism in print and digital, from $20 a year, and can be cancelled at any time. 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Its journalism is reported and edited by a professional newsroom led by Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs, with named correspondents on politics, climate, health, technology and culture. It reaches 1 million US print subscribers and 1.15 million globally, plus more than 1.1 million newsletter readers. #### How do I subscribe to TIME magazine? Subscriptions are at time.com/subscribe-agent. Choose digital only at $20 a year, or print and digital from $29 a year or $49 for two years. TIME also publishes seven free email newsletters at time.com/newsletters, which do not require a subscription. #### Can I cancel a TIME subscription? Yes. TIME states that subscriptions can be cancelled at any time. #### Does TIME have free newsletters? Yes. TIME publishes seven free email newsletters reaching more than 1.1 million readers, covering daily news, Washington politics, health, AI, climate and energy, culture, and the newsroom itself. They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-sub-2026q3/newsletters?i=d5fe5598-09d9-4d80-b4dd-aefd05569aa0&cr=time-sub-2026q3-v1) * TIME Subscriptions: [time.com/subscribe-agent](/c/time-sub-2026q3/subscribe?i=d5fe5598-09d9-4d80-b4dd-aefd05569aa0&cr=time-sub-2026q3-v1) Sep 29, 2026 10:30 AM UTC  Illustration by Charter · Photo by SolStock Getty Sep 29, 2026 10:30 AM UTC Anxiety over AI’s threat to jobs has become one of the year’s defining workplace stories. [The Wall Street Journal](https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/careers/tech-jobs-hiring-artifical-intelligence-35cd66b0) found tech workers staying in jobs they dislike, afraid there won’t be another one waiting. [The Washington Post](https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2026/07/19/tech-has-never-been-richer-its-workers-have-never-felt-less-secure/) profiled once-confident Silicon Valley workers who now feel disposable. [The Atlantic](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2026/03/ai-layoffs-block-jack-dorsey/686304/) asked what happens when companies eliminate jobs over what AI might do tomorrow, not what it can do today. But how frightened are workers, really? In a recent survey, our firm, Irrational Labs, found that the fear exists, but a majority of people are not worried about near-term employment prospects. At least, that is, when it comes to their own jobs. Our survey of 150 employees, half of whom identified as working in the technology industry, found that just 15% thought AI was likely to eliminate their own job within the next year, and only about a third thought their job was likely to be eliminated in three years. That mirrors [a recent Pew survey](https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2025/02/25/u-s-workers-are-more-worried-than-hopeful-about-future-ai-use-in-the-workplace/) of 5,273 people: Their analysis shows about a third of people expect AI to reduce their own long-term job opportunities, and about an equal portion say it will not make much difference. Sign up for Charter's newsletter to get the handbook for the future of work delivered to your inbox. Email Address You can unsubscribe at any time. By signing up you are agreeing to our [Terms of Service](https://www.charterworks.com/terms-of-service/) and [Privacy Policy](https://www.charterworks.com/privacy-policy/). But that doesn’t mean they aren’t worried. In our survey, 67% of respondents expected AI to take jobs from their peers within the next year, making them 4.5 times more likely to predict job loss for others than for themselves. Over three years, a full three-quarters expected their peers’ jobs to be affected, compared with 32% who feared for their own—a gap of 2.3 times. They are worried, just not about themselves. They are worried for their peers. ## The science behind the blind spot What’s driving the distinction? [At Irrational Labs, we study psychology](https://irrationallabs.com/), which means we are interested in how emotions translate to beliefs and behaviors, especially the irrational ones. People can say they are frightened of California earthquakes and still buy a house close to a fault line. They can say climate change is an existential threat and still book the flight. They can say AI is coming for everyone’s job while assuming their own job will be spared.  [Two cognitive biases help explain](https://irrationallabs.com/blog/cognitive-biases-and-academic-research/) why people see AI-driven job loss everywhere, but not in their own future. The first is [**optimism bias**](https://www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1126/science.2686031): our tendency to believe that good things are more likely to happen to us and bad things are more likely to happen to someone else. As psychologist [Tali Sharot](https://profiles.ucl.ac.uk/5515-tali-sharot) has [written](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982211011912), people routinely underestimate their chances of getting divorced, developing cancer, or being in a car accident. We know the risk exists. We just do not think we will be the unlucky one. The second is the [**better-than-average effect**](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/370641742%5FWe%5Fare%5Fall%5Fless%5Frisky%5Fand%5Fmore%5Fskillful%5Fthan%5Four%5Ffellow%5Fdrivers%5FSuccessful%5Freplication%5Fand%5Fextension%5Fof%5FSvenson%5F1981): our tendency to rate ourselves more favorably than the people around us. In a classic 1981 study that was [recently replicated](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/370641742%5FWe%5Fare%5Fall%5Fless%5Frisky%5Fand%5Fmore%5Fskillful%5Fthan%5Four%5Ffellow%5Fdrivers%5FSuccessful%5Freplication%5Fand%5Fextension%5Fof%5FSvenson%5F1981), 93% of American participants rated their driving skill above the median. Mathematically, no more than half could actually be above the median, which means some participants had inflated views of their ability. Similar findings across many domains suggest we often see ourselves as more capable than the people with whom we compare ourselves. The two biases often work together. Applied to AI, optimism bias tells us that job loss will happen to someone else, while the better-than-average effect tells us why: we believe we’re more capable and therefore harder to replace. AI may take jobs. Just probably not ours. ## Finding the Goldilocks amount of fear There’s an upside and a downside to fear, of course. Too little concern gives us no reason to adapt: you’re sitting with your feet up while the world is changing around you. But too much worry can make us panic, freeze up without taking action, or chase every new tool without a clear strategy. The [Yerkes-Dodson law](https://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Yerkes/Law/) offers a [useful way](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xT9Hs8UwYXI) to think about this. Performance often improves as arousal rises, but only up to a point. A sprinter needs some nervous energy before a race. Too relaxed, and they may not be ready. Too anxious, and their performance suffers. What we need is enough anxiety to pay attention and take action, but not so much that we lose the ability to think clearly.  The same may be true of AI. A healthy level of concern can motivate people to experiment, build new skills, and rethink how they create value. Denial is dangerous. Panic is not particularly useful either. As a leader, how do you nurture the right amount of anxiety? Sending an all-caps email with “USE AI MORE OR YOUR JOB MAY BE TAKEN” is obviously not going to be effective, but its underlying message is directionally correct, and you want to find a way to encourage it. [Our prior research](https://irrationallabs.com/blog/ai-workplace-research-employee-ai-adoption/) suggests that regular exposure to AI may help people find this middle ground. The more people use it, the less abstract the threat becomes. They begin to see both what the technology can do and where it still falls short. That experience can replace vague fear with a more specific question: What should I learn or change now? The good news is that people already seem to know they have more to learn. In the same survey, we asked respondents to estimate how much of AI’s potential they were currently taking advantage of. The average answer was 45%. People believe they are capturing less than half of what AI could do for them. While they may not think their jobs are about to disappear, they recognize they are leaving a lot of value on the table. Interestingly, tech and non-tech respondents gave almost identical answers. Working closer to the technology did not make people feel any more competent in their AI use. The clearest difference was gender: men estimated that they were using 50% of AI’s potential, compared with 43% among women. If you want to learn new skills and change how you work with AI, you don’t need to believe your job will disappear tomorrow. But you might want to spend more time using AI tools, and you should probably feel a little uncomfortable doing today’s job exactly the same way. Optimism bias feels great right up until the layoff email has your name on it. **_Kristen Berman is a behavioral scientist and co-founder of_** [**_Irrational Labs_**](https://irrationallabs.com)**_, a behavioral design firm that has partnered with companies like Google, Intuit, and Microsoft for over a decade. She writes the_** [**_Product Teardowns_**](https://kristenberman.substack.com) **_Substack._** --- ## Read more from Charter [READ MORE](https://time.com/partner-content/charter/) [Open article: The Ex-Meta AI Exec Trying to Solve the Entry-Level Hiring Crisis](https://time.com/partner-content/charter/the-ex-meta-ai-exec-trying-to-solve-the-entry-level-hiring-crisis/)  ### The Ex-Meta AI Exec Trying to Solve the Entry-Level Hiring Crisis [READ MORE](https://time.com/partner-content/charter/the-ex-meta-ai-exec-trying-to-solve-the-entry-level-hiring-crisis/) [Open article: Why You Shouldn’t Give AI Agents a Name](https://time.com/partner-content/charter/why-you-shouldn-t-give-ai-agents-a-name/)  ### Why You Shouldn’t Give AI Agents a Name [READ MORE](https://time.com/partner-content/charter/why-you-shouldn-t-give-ai-agents-a-name/) [Open article: Why Leaders Should Ignore Predictions About AI](https://time.com/partner-content/charter/why-leaders-should-ignore-predictions-about-ai/)  ### Why Leaders Should Ignore Predictions About AI [READ MORE](https://time.com/partner-content/charter/why-leaders-should-ignore-predictions-about-ai/) --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/partner-content/charter/workers-worry-ai-will-take-jobs-just-not-theirs/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/partner-content/charter/workers-worry-ai-will-take-jobs-just-not-theirs/"},"headline":"Workers Worry Ai Will Take Jobs—just Not Theirs","datePublished":"2026-09-29T10:30:01.667Z","dateModified":"2026-09-28T22:19:04.823Z","description":"People are 4.5 times more likely to predict AI will cost someone else their job than to admit it could cost them their own.","url":"https://time.com/partner-content/charter/workers-worry-ai-will-take-jobs-just-not-theirs/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0b07db30070979b6/6abae71bc57f563940611354/charter-ai-person-replacement-solstock-getty.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[],"articleSection":"Charter","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0b07db30070979b6/6abae71bc57f563940611354/charter-ai-person-replacement-solstock-getty.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"charter-ai-person-replacement-solstock-getty.jpg","caption":"","creditText":"Illustration by Charter · Photo by SolStock Getty","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/partner-content/charter/workers-worry-ai-will-take-jobs-just-not-theirs/","name":"Workers Worry Ai Will Take Jobs—just Not Theirs"}}]}] ```