As if the workplace hasn’t changed enough over recent years, it’s about to go at warp speed. The power of AI is touching industries, whether employees are ready or not. The thing is, many of them are scared. 

In a thought leadership spotlight, Bradley Wilson, principal consultant at Perceptyx, spoke to this at the From Day One’s conference in Seattle.“Loss aversion is a real thing,” he said. It seems a day doesn’t go by that a new headline reporting AI taking jobs pops up. 

So, what’s the future of the workplace where AI is concerned? Wilson says that two people with the same experience can have completely different outlooks. One will have fear, the other will see possibility. The trick is to help harness the power of AI in such a way that it creates opportunities for all.

As a teenager, Bradley Wilson convinced his parents to let him hike the entire Appalachian Trail—a span of over 2,000 miles from Georgia to Maine. At the time, the trail had an over 90 percent failure rate. The question was, who would stay and who would go home? What was that determining factor for success? 

Wilson averaged 26 miles a day and was only 50 miles to the end when he was talking with others who were so close to finishing. They compared notes and determined they all had the grit and determination required to do the hard thing. 

But they wondered: “Were these character traits that we had at the beginning that weeded everybody else out and we were left? Or were these things that developed over time?”

Now at Perceptyx, helping organizations foster success-minded employees is what Wilson does for a living. With the help of AI, the company combines employee surveys and people analytics to drive organizations forward with happy employees. The biggest driver of employee engagement? The anticipation of success, Wilson says. 

The thing leadership needs to understand is that the definition of “success” can vary from person to person. Typically it includes achievement, affiliation, affluence, and autonomy. If anything coming down the pipeline threatens any of those, especially if they are important to the employee, fear sets in. Building the anticipation of success is key.

“Unfortunately, a lot of leadership teams stop at achievement and affluence. They don’t understand the power of belonging, which is the affiliation component. And they don't understand the importance of autonomy.”

At various organizations Perceptyx has worked with, the survey results were telling with regard to gender experience. At the individual contributor level, women reported higher scores on the DEI category. At the supervisor level, the scores for men and women were similar. But then at the senior manager and director level things change. Men continue to have higher positive association or correlation with job level. But for women, it drops and it never catches back up.

“One of the executives asked, ‘is that evidence that men and women at these levels are being treated differently? Or could it be evidence that we’re treating them the same but the needs and expectations are different?’” 

Wilson investigated this question on a personal level when a CEO at another company had a female direct report who gave negative survey feedback. The CEO brought it up at their next one-on-one, making light of the situation and thinking things were fine.

But the woman stopped and told him she had been job searching because she didn’t think he valued her opinion. She felt like an outsider and completely disconnected—totally the opposite from what the CEO had thought. 

“In that case,” Wilson said, “that would have been a difference in experience. That's tied to real behavior that now we can measure. It's not just employee perception, but it's actual behavior. Once we can manage that, then we can begin to measure it and bring out that meaningful change within the organization.” That is what AI can do, he added.  

What used to be lists of to-dos can now be personally tailored into actionable steps for real change, thanks to AI. “When you think about AI making work more human, it sounds counterintuitive, but the possibilities are incredible.”

Looking at the future of the workplace, people want stability or certainty in any way they can get it. Yet, change is constant and the future is unknown. Much like the possibility of hiking the Appalachian Trail, there are unknowns, but there are plenty of knowns. Two people in the same situation can have completely different outlooks, but with the help of AI, organizations can harness survey feedback and analytics to help employees anticipate success rather than failure. 

“You all are uniquely positioned within your organization to help shape and guide the culture and experience that employees have,” Wilson said, “so they’re able to face an uncertain future with a sense of stability and predictability and that sense that they have so much control over their destiny.” 

Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Perceptyx, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight. 

Carrie Snider is a Phoenix-based journalist and marketing copywriter.