AI at Work: Why It Can Make Us Question Our Value

Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming the way we work. It can save us time, help us produce content, find information, or solve certain problems. But behind this promise of efficiency lies a more personal question: what is my place when technology can do part of my job?

Just a few years ago, using artificial intelligence at work could seem unusual. Today, for many young professionals, it is already part of everyday life: writing an email, preparing a presentation, translating a text, analysing data, generating ideas, summarising a meeting…

And paradoxically, while AI is supposed to save us time, it can sometimes create the opposite feeling. If I can do more in less time, will more now be expected of me?

When Saving Time Means Having to Work Faster

This is one of the paradoxes of AI. A task that used to take two hours can sometimes be completed in thirty minutes. But what happens to the remaining hour and a half?

In some organisations, the time saved can be used to focus on other things. In others, it may simply lead to higher expectations: more projects, more responses, more meetings, more output. Efficiency then becomes a new standard.

And when everyone has access to the same tools, what was considered a strong performance yesterday can quickly become the minimum expected today.

This can create a feeling of constantly being in a race: doing more, faster, with less visible effort.

“If AI Can Do It, What Am I Here For?”

For some people, the concern goes even further. It touches on their sense of competence and usefulness. After several years of studying and/or working, you may have built part of your identity around your knowledge and skills.

Then you start using a tool capable of producing, within seconds, something that previously took you a great deal of time.

An uncomfortable thought can emerge:

“Does my expertise still have value?”

Or:

“If AI can do this, what makes me different?”

This question can be particularly unsettling when you are at the beginning of your career and are still building confidence in your professional abilities.

The Feeling That You Constantly Have to Adapt

AI also introduces a new kind of uncertainty. It is no longer just about learning your job. You may also need to learn new tools, understand how to use them, keep up with developments, sometimes train your colleagues, and rethink the way you work.

And when technology evolves so quickly, it can be difficult to feel that you truly have control over your professional environment. You have barely figured out how to work in one way before the tools have already changed. This feeling of constantly having to learn, evolve and adapt can become exhausting.

When Technology Also Reduces Human Interaction

AI is only one part of a broader transformation of the workplace. For many people, professional life is already largely made up of emails, Slack or Teams messages, video calls and shared documents. You can speak to dozens of people in a single day without actually spending much time with them.

And some of the spontaneous interactions we once had can disappear: chatting with a colleague for a few minutes, asking a question in passing, having a coffee together, or thinking something through without a specific objective.

Yet not every human interaction is “productive”.

Some simply help us create connections.

To feel that we belong to a group.

To understand someone.

To laugh.

To feel seen and recognised.

As work becomes increasingly fast-paced, digital and optimised, it may be worth asking ourselves what we lose when everything has to have a function, an objective or an outcome.

Rediscovering Your Value Beyond Productivity

Ultimately, AI raises a question that goes far beyond technology:

What value do I place on what I do, beyond what I produce?

Your professional value does not lie solely in your ability to quickly produce a text, presentation or analysis. It can also lie in your ability to listen, understand a complex situation, build a relationship of trust, make a decision, exercise judgement, or perceive what is not explicitly written in a brief.

And above all, your personal value does not depend on your productivity.

That can be difficult to remember in a professional environment where targets, performance indicators and deadlines occupy so much space.

Making Space for Uncertainty

We do not yet know exactly how AI will transform our professions over the coming years. It is therefore understandable to feel anxious about something that is evolving so quickly.

But it may be helpful to distinguish between two questions:

“How will my job change?”

and

“What are these changes bringing up for me?”

The second question is often more personal.

Is it the fear of not being good enough?

The fear of losing your job?

A need to control your environment?

The feeling that you always have to do more?

Or perhaps a deeper difficulty in recognising your own value when it is not validated through performance?

AI is transforming the way we work. But it can also invite us to reflect on something deeper: if I am not only what I produce, then what is my value?

Do you feel anxious, under pressure or unsettled by changes in your professional life? An opportunity to talk can provide space to step back, understand what is happening for you, and develop a more peaceful relationship with your work. Feel free to get in touch to book a first session.