Workers are increasingly “gatekeeping” their own knowledge out of fear AI could one day replace them, a new report has found.

The study – on the human cost of digital transformation by consultancy Adaptavist – surveyed 4,000 knowledge workers across the US, UK, Canada and Germany.

It found many employees worry their organisations will lose valuable knowledge when experienced staff leave, yet they’re also reluctant to share what they know, creating a self-defeating “vicious cycle.”

According to the Understanding the human cost of digital transformation report, this dynamic has created a form of “AI psychological warfare” in workplaces, where anxiety about job losses is driving people to withhold skills and information that could otherwise strengthen their teams.

More than a third of the respondents to the survey said they are hoarding their own expertise because they’re afraid of AI replacing their roles, and just under 40 per cent said they are reluctant to train their colleagues in areas they consider personal strengths.

According to the report, this creates a “vicious cycle” where the “very behaviours intended to protect jobs actually increase organisational vulnerability to knowledge loss”.

Nearly two-thirds of respondents said they believe their organisation would struggle to replace their skill set if they leave.

Knowledge should be a team sport

The report quotes Atlassian principal solutions engineer Chris Davidson, who urged workers to unite and share their knowledge of emerging technologies.

“Knowledge is a team sport – and when it walks out the door, so does momentum,” Davidson said.

“To build resilient teams, organisations must focus on creating a culture that champions continual knowledge-sharing, including implementing intuitive systems that make knowledge visible, accessible and lasting.”

To help to avoid this gatekeeping, the report recommends that businesses reframe AI as augmentation rather than replacement, invest in reskilling and upskilling, create knowledge-sharing incentives and take efforts to measure psychological safety.

Tech isn’t a cure-all

The report also found that the introduction of new technologies such as AI and broader digital transformation efforts are sometimes driving dissatisfaction and unhappiness for workers.

“‘Digital transformation’ promised empowerment, but for many employees it has become something worse than a ‘buzzword’: a burden, causing stress, disconnection and uncertainty that extends beyond the working environment to impact people’s personal, as well as professional, lives at an alarming scale,” the report said.

“More technology alone isn’t a cure-all. Nor is it the enemy.

“Instead, how companies adopt, manage and support its use determines whether their workplace culture and employee experience thrive or fracture.”

The survey found that many knowledge workers are struggling in their jobs, with a growth in “quiet cracking” and “technostress”, which it said is the strain felt from regular demands to adapt to new technologies in the office.

It found that more than 40 per cent of respondents to the survey said they have felt less motivated in the last 12 months and feel unappreciated by their managers, while more than a third have experienced emotional withdrawal over the last year.

Nearly two-thirds of all knowledge workers surveyed said that technology has negatively impacted their lives at work.

“This underscores how deeply embedded technostress has become in everyday professional life,” the report said.

“Workers are not overwhelmed by a single system, but by the cumulative effect of too many tools, too many notifications and too few guardrails.”

It’s all too much

The report found that while new technologies are often implemented in the workplace to streamline communications and drive efficiency, they are too often compounding these problems and creating stress and anxiety for workers.

More than a quarter of respondents said they regularly experience digital overwhelm, while 43 per cent said the number of notifications they are receiving from multiple communications platforms is driving their stress.

“There is a pressing need to address ‘technostress’ head-on,” Adaptavist head of consulting North America Cannon Lafferty said.

“Technology roll-outs fail not because of bad technology, but because of bad change management and bad project management.

“The companies that succeed in preventing burnout and disengagement will focus on more than selecting the right tools; they will work with a trusted partner…to focus on the human elements, from preserving worker autonomy to creating supportive cultures around technology adoption.”

The report backs up previous studies that have found that workers in Australia and around the world are feeling depleted and uninspired, in part due to a disillusionment with their workplaces’ focus on technology and AI.