Four in 10 workers and executives fear AI will damage human connection and company culture, while nearly three in four employees say company values aren’t guiding its adoption, new research reveals.
Employees and executives may not always see workplace transformation in the same way, but new research reveals one striking area of agreement: both fear artificial intelligence could come at the expense of human connection and company culture. Some 43% of both employees and executives surveyed in Georgia, US, identify loss of human connection and damage to company culture as the biggest risk associated with AI at work, according to the 2026 Business Generosity Report from goBeyondProfit and Georgia CEO.
Broader sentiment towards workplace AI also remains cautious. Some 67% of employees and 54% of executives report mixed or negative feelings about its impact. Yet despite both groups recognising the cultural risk, employees are far less convinced that organisational values are shaping how businesses respond.
Nearly three-quarters (72%) do not believe their company’s values are actively guiding AI integration. The findings raise an increasingly important question for business leaders: as organisations accelerate AI adoption, how do they embrace the technology without weakening the human relationships, trust and culture that make workplaces function?
WORKERS & EXECUTIVES AGREE ON AI’S BIGGEST CULTURAL RISK
The fact that 43% of employees and executives identify the same leading concern is significant. AI is often framed as a source of tension between leadership and workers – with executives focused on productivity, innovation and growth while employees worry about job security, workloads and changing roles.
But the latest findings suggest both groups recognise that something less tangible could also be at stake: the human connection that underpins workplace culture. Previous research has highlighted similar concerns.
A recent workplace culture study found that among employees who believe AI is negatively affecting workplace culture, 52.6% blamed reduced human interaction and collaboration. Other concerns included job displacement, unrealistic productivity expectations and poor implementation.
That research prompted calls for employers to use AI to strengthen rather than replace workplace relationships. Read more: Workplace Toxicity Persists in 2026 as Nearly 70% of Employees Report Toxic Work Environments.
Earlier this year, workplace experts also urged employers to put wellbeing and culture at the heart of workplace AI adoption, arguing that trust, culture and employee support are critical if AI is to deliver sustainable productivity gains rather than anxiety and disengagement.
THREE IN FOUR DON’T SEE COMPANY VALUES GUIDING AI
Recognising the risk does not necessarily mean employees believe organisations are addressing it. Some 72% of workers surveyed do not believe company values are actively driving AI integration. In other words, almost three in four employees are watching organisations navigate one of the most significant transformations in modern working life without seeing company values acting as a visible compass.
That matters because AI decisions increasingly affect how people work, how organisations assess their performance, which tasks they perform and what skills they need.
Employees surveyed want three relatively straightforward things from employers as they navigate that change:
- Clear communication about how AI affects their work
- A voice in how AI changes their role
- Time and support to adapt to AI
Yet fewer than half of executives report providing any of these. The findings reinforce a wider pattern emerging across workplace AI research. As Fair Play Talks recently reported, businesses may still be underestimating the people challenges of AI, with organisations focusing heavily on technology while potentially overlooking job redesign, workforce readiness and organisational change.
AI TRANSFORMATION: A TRUST TEST
AI implementation therefore represents more than a technology transformation. It can also become a test of whether employees believe the organisation’s stated values hold up when work is changing.
Values become particularly important when businesses face difficult decisions: cutting costs, redesigning jobs, eliminating positions, introducing new performance expectations or asking employees to adapt quickly to unfamiliar ways of working.
Those are precisely the moments when trust can become fragile. A company can publish values centred on respect, inclusion, collaboration or putting people first. Employees are likely to judge those commitments by what happens when AI begins changing their actual jobs.
The issue also extends beyond company culture. As recently highlighted in coverage of London’s £30 million plan to help workers and businesses prepare for AI, people affected by the technology need opportunities to influence how organisations select, implement and evaluate it.
WHAT DOES A ‘GENEROUS’ BUSINESS ACTUALLY LOOK LIKE?
The wider Business Generosity Report examines what goBeyondProfit describes as “business generosity” – but the findings reveal a significant difference between how employees and executives understand it. When employees were asked what generosity means to them, they ranked:
- 38% – employee care that goes above and beyond
- 27% – company culture
- 20% – how the business treats customers and its supply chain
- 15% – charitable giving
Executives, according to the research, ranked those priorities in reverse. That distinction matters. For employees, a generous company appears to be defined less by how much it gives away and more by how it behaves towards people. That includes how leaders communicate difficult decisions, whether employees have a genuine voice, whether people receive sufficient support through change and whether company values remain visible when commercial pressures intensify.
The report also suggests many of the actions employees now expect as a baseline do not require significant additional budgets. The challenge may therefore be less about how much companies spend and more about whether their actions reflect what employees actually value.
MOST PREFER TO WORK FOR A GENEROUS COMPANY
The importance employees attach to organisational generosity has increased substantially. Some 82% now say it is very or extremely important to work for a generous company. That’s up from 75% in 2022 and 49% in 2019. Meanwhile, 94% say experiencing business generosity has a significant impact on their day-to-day work, with 55% strongly agreeing.
Employees report that experiencing generosity makes them:
- 90% better able to serve customers
- 89% more energised to collaborate with colleagues
- 89% more engaged and productive
- 88% more likely to work harder and find new ideas
- 88% more loyal to their employer
These are employees’ perceptions of how generosity affects their behaviour rather than objective measures showing that generosity causes greater productivity, collaboration or performance. Nevertheless, they demonstrate how strongly employees themselves associate workplace treatment with how they experience and approach their jobs.
EIGHT IN 10 HAVE MADE A CAREER DECISION BASED ON GENEROSITY
Those attitudes also appear to influence employment decisions. Some 80% of employees say they have made at least one career choice based on a company’s generosity, up from 66% in 2025. Those decisions include leaving a company, rejecting an offer, pursuing a job, staying with an employer or accepting lower pay.
Perhaps most strikingly, 46% say they have stayed with a generous employer for longer despite believing they could earn more elsewhere. Another 18% say they have taken an actual pay cut to work somewhere they considered generous.
The findings suggest salary is not the only factor shaping employees’ decisions about where to work and whether to stay. Culture, treatment, trust and relationships can carry significant weight too.
MOST EXECUTIVES MAINTAINING OR INCREASING INVESTMENT
Executives appear to recognise the growing importance of generosity. Some 64% say they are increasing their investment in business generosity, while another 35% are maintaining their current level of investment. That means 99% are either maintaining or increasing investment. But the research exposes an important disconnect. Executives and employees do not necessarily agree about which forms of generosity matter most.
The challenge may therefore be less about whether businesses are investing in generosity and more about whether they are investing in the things employees actually value. For organisations navigating AI transformation, that distinction could become particularly important.
A charitable initiative may make a valuable contribution to communities, but it is unlikely to compensate for employees feeling excluded from decisions about how AI will affect their jobs. Similarly, corporate values will do little to build trust if employees cannot see those values reflected in the way leaders communicate and manage workplace change.
EMPLOYEE VOICE MATTERS AS AI CHANGES WORK
One of the clearest messages from the research is that employees want a say in how AI affects their roles. That doesn’t mean giving employees control over every technology decision. It means recognising that the people performing the work often have valuable insight into which tasks AI can improve, where it creates problems, which human interactions matter and where automation could unintentionally reduce quality or trust.
Employee voice can also help businesses understand how AI is actually being used. As Fair Play Talks recently reported, workers are adopting AI faster than many employers can govern it. Across 72 organisations analysed in that research, employees actively used almost 50 different AI applications, highlighting the growth of consumer AI tools outside traditional company systems.
Another global study found that half of Gen Z workers feel guilty about using AI and more than four in 10 are hiding their use from employers. When employees don’t feel able to discuss AI openly, organisations lose valuable visibility into how the technology is reshaping work.
TRUST & PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY ARE BECOMING PART OF AI GOVERNANCE
That makes trust more than a cultural aspiration. It is increasingly part of responsible AI governance. Employees need to feel able to question AI outputs, disclose how they have used the technology and report mistakes when something goes wrong.
As previously explored by Fair Play Talks, AI transparency increasingly depends on psychological safety in the workplace. If employees fear embarrassment, punishment or damage to their professional reputation when they disclose AI use, organisations may inadvertently encourage people to conceal it.
The result can be exactly the opposite of effective governance: less visibility, weaker accountability and fewer opportunities to identify emerging problems.
Recent research provides a stark illustration. Four in 10 US workers using AI admitted accepting answers they suspected were wrong, while only 22% worked under a written employer policy requiring verification. Trust, employee voice and accountability therefore need to work together.
TRUSTWORTHY AI COULD ALSO SUPPORT BUSINESS PERFORMANCE
Treating trust and culture seriously does not necessarily mean sacrificing the commercial benefits of AI. Recent research reported by Fair Play Talks found that organisations with strong trustworthy AI practices were 15 times more likely to report strong or high returns from their AI investments.
The global SAS report, featuring research insights from IDC, found 62% of organisations with strong trustworthy AI practices reported strong or high ROI, compared with just 4% of organisations identified as trustworthy AI laggards.
The research does not establish that trustworthy AI practices caused the stronger returns, but it found a significant association between stronger governance, data quality, explainability and accountability and better reported outcomes.
Workplace culture adds another dimension. Employees need to understand how AI is being used and feel confident raising concerns, challenging questionable outputs and discussing problems openly. Responsible AI therefore depends on both technical safeguards and human relationships.
‘GENEROSITY’ AS AN OPERATING STANDARD
Megan McCamey, President of goBeyondProfit, argues that companies should think about generosity less as a charitable activity and more as a standard for how they operate. “Positioned correctly, the data shows that generosity can directly answer the shared concern that AI will cost the workplace its human connection,” said McCamey. “Companies building a track record now – not as a charitable line item, but as an operating standard for how people are treated at every point of contact – are the ones positioned to convert this year’s uncertainty into ongoing trust.”
The distinction is important because AI adoption creates numerous moments in which employees experience an organisation’s values first-hand: how leaders explain change, who gets consulted, what happens to displaced work, how much time people receive to retrain, whether productivity gains translate into greater pressure and how employees are treated when technology makes mistakes. Those decisions may ultimately say more about an organisation’s values than any corporate statement.
WHAT EMPLOYERS & BUSINESS LEADERS SHOULD DO NEXT
Make values visible in AI decisions
Leaders should translate company values into practical principles for AI adoption. If an organisation says it values people, collaboration or inclusion, employees should be able to see how those commitments influence decisions about automation, job redesign, performance and workforce change.
Explain how AI will affect people’s work
Employees should not have to infer what AI means for their jobs. Leaders should communicate what is changing, what remains uncertain and how they expect roles and responsibilities to evolve.
Give employees a voice
Organisations should involve employees in discussions about how AI changes workflows and roles. The people closest to the work can often identify opportunities, unintended consequences and risks that leaders or technology teams may overlook.
Give people time to adapt
AI transformation requires more than access to new tools. Employers should give people training, opportunities to practise new skills and sufficient time to adjust to redesigned jobs and ways of working.
Protect human connection deliberately
Organisations should identify where human interaction creates value and avoid automating it simply because technology makes automation possible. Collaboration, mentoring, coaching, difficult conversations, relationship-building and informal learning can all play an important role in workplace culture.
Create psychological safety around AI
Organisations should create a culture where employees feel confident discussing how they use AI, challenging its outputs and reporting problems without fearing disproportionate repercussions or blame when the technology gets things wrong. Leaders and managers can reinforce this by modelling transparent AI use themselves.
Mesaure culture alongside productivity
Businesses frequently assess AI through efficiency, adoption and cost savings. They should also measure its effect on trust, collaboration, employee voice, workload, job quality and human connection.
Align investment with what employees actually value
The report suggests employees and executives define generosity differently. Businesses should listen to their own workforce before deciding which investments will have the greatest impact on trust, engagement and workplace culture.
WHY THIS MATTERS FOR RESPONSIBLE BUSINESS
The debate around responsible AI often focuses on accuracy, bias, data, privacy, security and governance. All matter. But the 2026 Business Generosity Report highlights another dimension businesses should not overlook: what happens to the relationships between people as AI becomes embedded in work?
Employees and executives surveyed appear to agree on the risk. Some 43% of both groups identify the loss of human connection and damage to company culture as their leading concern about AI’s workplace impact.
The bigger question is whether organisational behaviour reflects that awareness. If 72% of employees cannot see company values guiding AI integration, there is a gap between what businesses say they stand for and what workers experience during transformation.
Closing that gap does not necessarily require grand gestures. Employees are asking for clear communication, a voice in how their jobs change and sufficient time and support to adapt. Those are fundamentally questions of leadership and how organisations treat people.
Responsible AI isn’t only about what the technology does. It’s also about how organisations treat people while introducing it. As AI takes on a greater role in work, preserving human connection may therefore become one of the clearest tests of whether businesses can embrace technological progress without losing the culture and trust that enable people to thrive.
Read the full 2026 Business Generosity Report here.
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