AI at Work: Fear, Facts, Forward with Dr. Mary Hayes

Want a real-world look at how AI is reshaping work without the hype? Dr. Mary Hayes joins us to explore what employees actually feel about AI, why optimism varies across countries and roles, and how leaders can turn uncertainty into momentum through honest, practical communication. We dig into ADP Research findings that reveal a surprising truth: many executives admit they don’t yet know how AI will change their jobs, and that vulnerability can be the key to building trust when paired with clear use cases and feedback loops.

We break down where AI helps today—automating repetitive Q&A, speeding data analysis, and freeing people to handle nuanced conversations—and where it still falls short in creativity, common sense, and emotional intelligence. You’ll hear a simple framing that sticks: AI won’t necessarily replace you, but someone using AI might. The path forward is to make the technology a tool for every employee and to design learning experiences that meet people at different stages of their careers.

Dr. Hayes shares a practical blueprint for upskilling across three role types—knowledge workers, cycle workers, and skilled task workers—highlighting how each group perceives readiness and investment differently. We talk about bridging soft-skill gaps in communication and critical thinking, especially after years of disrupted education, and we offer ideas for peer coaching that pairs digital fluency with deep domain judgment. Expect concrete steps: start with focused pilots, publish what works, measure time saved and quality gains, and keep the conversation open so adoption feels collaborative, not imposed.

If you’re leading teams through AI change or figuring out where to begin, this conversation will help you craft transparent messages, pick high-value use cases, and build durable skills that machines can’t imitate. Listen, share with your team, and tell us: what’s the first workflow you’ll pilot with AI? Subscribe, leave a review, and join us at HRGazette.com for more research and episodes.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Guest Background
• 2:46 Why Employee Voice Matters
• 2:52 Global Sentiment On AI
• 4:17 Transparency And Practical Use Cases
• 6:39 Leaders Communicating AI’s Value
• 8:23 Admitting Unknowns At The Top
• 9:05 Generational Differences And Upskilling
• 11:12 The One-Minute AI Takeaway
• 12:23 Skills, Roles, And Readiness Gaps
• 15:09 Soft Skills Lost And How To Bridge
• 16:39 Where To Find The Research
• 17:50 Closing And Subscribe

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:02

Welcome to the HR Chat Show, one of the world's most downloaded and shared podcasts designed for HR pros, talent execs, tech enthusiasts, and business leaders. For hundreds more episodes and what's new in the world of work, subscribe to the show, follow us on social media, and visit hrgazette.com.

SPEAKER_02: 0:26

Dr. Mary Hayes, welcome to the HR Chat Show. Thank you very much for being my guest today.

SPEAKER_03: 0:31

It is my honor, Bill. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02: 0:33

As we always do on this show, why don't you start by taking a couple of minutes and uh telling our listeners a bit about your academic and career background?

SPEAKER_03: 0:42

My career started actually in theater years and years ago. And it wasn't until uh later in life that I realized that I loved math and I loved research. And so I went back to school and got my master's degree in educational psychology measurement, qualitative and quantitative measurement, um, and also found a love for survey research methodology. My doctorate is in leadership, and my love for HR is really giving the voice to the employees so that we as professionals can help them along the journey of it's not just a job, but it becomes a joy for them. And I've been doing this for roughly 20 years.

SPEAKER_02: 1:40

Wonderful. Thank you very much. So is that empowering employee piece, the uh giving employees a voice? Is that is that the reason why you get up in the morning?

SPEAKER_03: 1:50

Yes. Um, I think there are times where we dread going to work. And for me, that is never the case. I get up and I want to tell the stories. I want to help workers navigate the world of work through positive, strengthening activities. And if I can do that through giving them a voice and helping HR know what employees are feeling and will be doing if they do have that opportunity to succeed at work.

SPEAKER_02: 2:32

One of the key findings from ADP Research is People at Work 2025 report on AI found that 17% of workers globally, 15% of workers in the US, and 12% of workers in Canada believe that AI will positively impact their job. For organizations, Dr. Mary, looking to uh to implement AI within their workforce, what are some of the benefits or positive impacts their employees may encounter when when trying to get the most from AI?

SPEAKER_03: 3:04

Well, AI presents significant opportunities for efficiency, innovation, but it also should give us pause and allow us to carefully consider the impact on the workforce. Um it can be transformative, but it can also be scary. Um the global survey that we just ran in uh July to August of last year, we asked the employees about their feelings about um the positive contribution of AI, openness and understanding of it, and asked them if they feared it uh for losing their jobs to technology. What we found is that for organizations, transparency and communication need to be key. They need to allow workers to see in behind the curtain, to say, this is why we're trying this, this is why we believe it's going to be beneficial. Um AI can automate tasks, make predictions, analyze data at lightning speed, but AI has limitations in creativity, emotional intelligence, as well as common sense. So employers need to help workers understand the business need and how it will help them in the future.

SPEAKER_01: 4:43

Thanks for listening to this episode of the HR Chat Podcast. If you enjoy the audio content we produce, you'll love our articles on the HR Gazette. Learn more at HRGazette.com. And now back to the show.

SPEAKER_02: 4:59

Let's uh, as we like to see on this show, offer some tangible takeaways for our listeners then. What are a couple of things that leaders can do to better communicate the value of AI, the use cases of AI, how it's going to augment and help employ employees' roles? You know, what what what are some things that you've seen that work?

SPEAKER_03: 5:18

One of the when we began this this line of research with the global study, I I paused and thought, what would the worker know about AI? What what voice could I give to the worker? And in that we sought to understand their perspectives because AI is so diverse, we didn't necessarily define it for them. So, how organizations implement AI through a tool that helps to mine data? Um, one of the things that I've seen lately is they take um frequently asked questions, and instead of the worker having to go find the responses, they they mine what has been provided to employees before on um healthcare issues or questions. That used to be someone's job is to provide all those answers. Now workers can go that one step further and provide um the more complex answers that couldn't be solved through AI. So one of the things that our study find was our study found was that workers in the C-suite and upper management were the most likely to strongly agree with the statement. Currently, I have no idea about how AI will change my job. And an important part of the transparency for leaders is admitting that they don't have all the answers yet, and that we're in it to discover it together.

SPEAKER_02: 7:13

Excellent. Thank you very much. Um, so the AI report found that the younger the worker, the more likely they were to show optimism about the future of AI in the workplace. Um, that makes sense for a few reasons. How can employers leverage that enthusiasm and upskill their younger employees so they they know what AI tools to use to help them with their jobs? But also, of course, how can those employers make sure and uh and encourage older generations so they don't feel like they're being left behind?

SPEAKER_03: 7:48

Absolutely. So younger workers are at the beginning of their careers, those under 40, and what we see across a lot of the sentiment is that they are open to the possibilities and are positive in their outlook of what's to come in the world of work. If we think about it, the internet was invented just 40 years ago, and the younger members of our workforce have had computers in their lives from the beginning. The need to upskill might be more of a you already know how to do it, let's refocus that into how it works in the world of work. As for older workers, some of us are keen to the the possibilities of AI and um can see the benefits, but some of the workers at the end of their careers need to understand how it can benefit them as well. Um even as simple as learning the process and helping navigate for customers and consumers of whatever product or service they're using, help the older worker, help the older user of the system by using their own knowledge of how they gained uh access to the AI in the first place.

SPEAKER_02: 9:31

Okay, very good. Thank you very much. As I like to do on this show sometimes, I'm gonna mix it up now and I am gonna challenge you, maybe to summarize some of the things you just mentioned there. But um between the research from the People at Work 2025 AI report and today's discussion so far, in 60 seconds or less, Dr. Mary, what is the main thing, the number one thing that employers and business leaders should be excited about when it comes to AI and how that's going to impact the world of work?

SPEAKER_03: 10:02

It's not necessarily going to replace you, but someone will replace you using AI. That it's another tool in the toolbox of the worker that if I know how to do it, similar to if you know how to use Excel, you're gonna be heads and tails above someone who's doing hand calculations. So we just need to realize that the workforce is at a place where they have a contradictory set of emotions, excitement about the potential, but fear of the ultimate impact. And part of the contradiction can be attributed to anxiety about the unknown. So it varies by sector, it varies by country, um, even the idea of positive impact. Countries like Egypt are at the top of positive impact, and the US and and Canada are in the bottom third of the 34 markets that we looked at. So talk about it with your employees, decide what benefit it has, and communicate that so that they're not ready to walk out the door just because they don't feel like they fit in.

SPEAKER_02: 11:23

A lot of reports though are suggesting that up to 30% of jobs globally will be will be lost, will be replaced by 2030. So you do understand why a lot of people are fearful, but I think there's also a huge opportunity for people if they do upskill and uh and they get on board. The reports on AI is part of the larger People at Work 2025 series, of course, which features data-driven workplace insights from ADP research. Could you now discuss some of the key findings from the People at Work 2025 reports on skills development and engagement in the workplace and how employers can look at these points to drive more progress within their organizations?

SPEAKER_03: 12:07

For skills, we wanted to know if they felt the worker felt ready, and if there was a disconnect between employers investing in them, in their skills. And again, we see younger workers feel that they are ready for the next three years of the challenge. Um, but in particular, knowledge workers. So we separate our workers into three groups. We have knowledge workers, and we define that as they have a level of freedom to use their expertise to create something new. Um, a cycle worker, which is a someone who does similar repetitive tasks every day. And then in the middle of those two is the worker who uses their expertise to solve similar problems every day. So they're doing the same thing every day, but they have a higher level of expertise. So we could think of them as nurses and and practitioners. Well, knowledge workers feel much more prepared for the next three years than psycho workers, and skilled task workers fall somewhere in between. The truth is that they the knowledge worker also feels that their employer is ready to invest in them, and the cycle worker is at about eight percent feel that their organization is investing in them. Skills development is again one of those larger um constructs where we think about what does skills development mean for a cycle worker versus a knowledge worker? The the track or the ability to um navigate that teachings or learnings is employer dependent. So we wanted to know is uh education a factor in skills development? And we did find that those with higher education felt more um ready for the future, but not everyone, right? So um 24% of them were confident, so that still left a whole bunch that weren't as confident about the next three years. So as AI takes off and skills are necessary, organizations need to think about what is this being taught in education or do I need to teach it? Are skills around communication and email communication being taught in schools? I have I I have some some younger uh children, um they would fight mean that they're young, they're 20 something. Um they f their friends think that using punctuation is angry or aggressive. So when I reply to their texts with full sentences, they think that I'm I'm irritated or upset. We need to help workers who have been doing things um shorthand, not using punctuations, transition into learning how to communicate in the business world. These are the things that go unsaid, but are very important. Being able to critically think, those are those are skills that might not have been taught. We also have a a group of individuals who have lost five years of their education or or two to three years because of the recent pandemic. We need to meet them where they are and help bridge that gap of those soft skills as well as hard skills that they need to learn.

SPEAKER_02: 16:20

Okay, very good. I would just add that um I don't think it would be terrible if your average leader learned a few more emojis uh and and added that to the to our conversation from time to time and uh you know came down to the level of uh of their employers too when it comes to the two-way street there. Um okay, before we wrap up for today, Dr. Mary, how can our listeners connect with you and learn more about all of the amazing research that you and your team get up to?

SPEAKER_03: 16:46

The institute, now known as ADP Research, um, is online and all of the work that we've done over the years is available um as well as there's a place where that you can sign up and and become a um consumer of our our information. We do have email campaigns. We're also on LinkedIn as well as um Instagram and X, I think it is. Um, but for the most part, go to the website and you can download all of the research um and learn more. And there's also a place where you can ask questions. So feel free to reach out if something is is that we haven't covered is something that you want us to look at, as long as it's in the wheelhouse of the world of work.

SPEAKER_02: 17:40

Excellent. And I personally have just sent you a LinkedIn connection request because I think you're cool. Um very good. That just leaves me to say for today. Dr. Mary, thank you very much for your time.

SPEAKER_03: 17:49

Thank you so much, Bill. You have a great afternoon, evening, or whatever it is where you are.

SPEAKER_02: 17:55

And listeners, as always, until it's afternoon, by the way. Uh as always, until next time. Happy working.

SPEAKER_00: 18:05

Thanks for listening to the HR Chat Show. If you enjoyed this episode, why not subscribe and listen to some of the hundreds of episodes published by HR Gazette? And remember, for what's new in the world of work, subscribe to the show, follow us on social media, and visit hrgazette.com.