Ask Johnny: Should I Be Worried About AI Taking My Job?

SHRM President and Chief Executive Officer Johnny C. Taylor, Jr., SHRM-SCP, answers your workplace questions each week. Do you have a work-related question you’d like him to answer? Submit it here.

I keep seeing the headlines about layoffs due to AI, and my company recently rolled out new AI tools. Leadership keeps saying it's meant to help us, not replace us. I want to believe that, but I can't shake the feeling of impending doom. Am I being paranoid, or is losing my job to AI a legitimate fear?  

— Marcus

You're not paranoid. You're paying attention.

Let me give you the honest answer: research shows AI will eliminate some jobs. Period. I've said this on stages from Phoenix to Mumbai, and I'll say it here. Pretending otherwise doesn't protect anyone. It just leaves people less prepared for what's coming.

But here's what gets lost in those headlines: It won't be AI taking your job. It will be a person who learns how to use AI better than you do.

That distinction matters, so let's sit with it for a second. AI handles volume. Humans set priorities. AI accelerates. Humans decide. The technology is a force multiplier, not a substitute for human judgment. But that advantage belongs to the people who learn how to use it.

So, when your leadership says AI is meant to help you, here's my take: They might be telling the truth, and it still might cost you your job if you're the one person on the team who refuses to engage with it.

I have an equation I call AI+HI = ROI. AI plus Human intelligence equals return on investment. Organizations getting this right aren't asking, "AI or people?" They're asking, "How do we best combine them?" The employees who are thriving are the ones who stopped treating AI as a threat and started learning how to work with it, manage it, and get more from it.

When it comes to the fear of displacement, keep this in mind: Human beings will always have a role and a responsibility when it comes to AI. Specification and verification are uniquely human. AI can't solve a problem if we don't tell it what the problem is and what we need. And once it gives you an output, don't take the machine's answer at face value. Verify what it gives you. If the result isn't right, respecify. Humans must stay in the loop.

So, ask your leadership the harder question. Not "Will AI replace me?" but "With these tools in place, what does success look like for someone in my role a year from now?" That question moves the conversation from fear to expectations. It also tells you what skills you need to build now.

Watch what leadership does, not just what they say. If they're investing in training and reskilling alongside the rollout, that's a meaningful signal that they want employees to adapt with the technology. It doesn't guarantee every job will remain unchanged, but it tells you the organization is preparing its people for the transition. If the tools show up with no support and no plan, that tells you something, too.

And keep in mind, generative AI (GenAI) only became widely accessible to the public a few years ago. Many college degrees take longer to complete than that. We're still early in this transformation, which means it's not too late to get on board.

The question isn't whether AI will change your job. It will. The question is whether you'll be the one who learns to use it, or the one standing next to the person who did.