Artificial intelligence has arrived in the workplace and it has brought with it a deep sense of uncertainty. For many, AI anxiety isn’t abstract. A recent KPMG survey found that fears about job displacement doubled over the last year alone.
This anxiety is landing on an already overwhelmed workforce. Large-scale surveys consistently show elevated rates of chronic stress and burnout. Add in the pressures of a turbulent economy, persistent inflation concerns. And near-daily news of mass layoffs has many workers operating near their psychological limits.
AI didn’t create workplace stress, but it is intensifying it. And for many people, the added dread is pushing stress beyond the level that can be managed productively. When stress crosses a certain intensity threshold, we begin to mismanage it, and without realizing it, make it worse.
Instead of managing these psychological pressures thoughtfully, we allow our automatic coping mechanisms to take over, and gravitate toward strategies that offer short-term emotional relief—quick distractions that dull discomfort in the moment but ultimately make stress worse. The more overwhelmed we feel, the more we mismanage the stress, and a vicious cycle forms.
Our go-to source for distraction is our phones/screens, and via them—media. Anxiety spikes, our default coping mechanisms swoop in to take our mind off the uncomfortable feelings or fear, uncertainty and dread—and without consciously deciding to do so—our hands reach for our phones.
However, rather than soothe, the media we usually choose to consume only amplifies the feelings we’re trying to escape.
When people are worried about AI replacing them, they’re more likely to click on stories predicting mass job loss, watch videos warning that entire professions are doomed and fall into online rabbit holes fueled by outrage and fear. Algorithms reward this behavior with more of the same—keeping their nervous systems in chronic state of high alert.
Social media compounds the problem in a different way. Seeing highly curated portrayals of other people’s “best lives,” when we feel distressed, makes us feel even worse—downtrodden, inadequate, lonely, resentful and victimized.
Doomscrolling and reel-surfing don’t just consume free time. They crowd out healthier, more adaptive ways of coping—strategies that would actually reduce anxiety rather than intensify it. Since this stress mismanagement happens when we are on autopilot, people often don’t recognize that their coping efforts are part of the problem.
We cannot eliminate anxiety about AI. Some concern is natural and rational. But we can avoid using coping mechanisms that amplify that anxiety unnecessarily and deploy ones that allow us to regain a sense of agency and come down from constant activation. We could then use the freed-up mental space to recover, recharge—to be present in our lives outside of work.
In practical terms this means being more intentional about how we manage our emotions and making wiser choices about our media consumption. Limiting news intake to a single 15 minute window a day would reduce chronic activation without leaving people uninformed.
Using built-in tools like Screen Time or Digital Wellbeing to cap social media use prevents emotional spirals before they take hold. Turning off work email notifications and checking messages once in the evening—at a time we choose—restores a sense of control that stress quietly erodes.
These steps won’t eliminate anxiety, but they can lower it to a level that can then be managed effectively by healthier and more deliberate coping strategies, like problem solving.
Instead of ruminating about vague threats, workers can identify how AI is most likely to affect their role and develop concrete plans—updating a résumé or LinkedIn profile, expanding professional networks, building adjacent skills, or exploring retraining options. Having plans and backup plans transforms anxiety from a paralyzing force into a motivating one.
Social support matters too. Talking through fears with trusted colleagues, friends, or mentors provides validation and perspective. It reminds people they are not facing these uncertainties alone. Shared concern and feelings of connection also create an emotional and psychological buffer against external threats, and increase feelings of resilience.
Reframing is another powerful emotional management technique at our disposal. Anxiety predisposes us to catastrophic thinking and worst-case scenarios that feel inevitable but rarely are. A thoughtful more nuanced, realistic appraisal—one that acknowledges both risk and opportunity, will significantly reduce dread.
AI has arrived, bringing uncertainty and stress with it. But we do not need to bring its traveling companions on our own journey. By stopping ourselves from unintentionally feeding our anxiety and stress, and by using our psychological tools in healthier and more effective ways, we can regain control of our thoughts, our feelings and our lives.
Guy Winch, Ph.D., is a psychologist, TED speaker and author whose science-based self-help books have been translated into 30 languages. His most recent book is, Mind Over Grind: How to Break Free When Work Hijacks Your Life (February 2026, Simon & Schuster).
The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.