The top AI fear of Australian workers is not losing their job to it.
It’s becoming too dependent on it.
New research from The AI Breakpoint, based on a survey of more than 1,000 Australian workers aged 18 to 64, finds their top concern about AI in the workplace is becoming too reliant on the technology.
More than one in three workers have this concern (36%), compared with one in five (20%) who are concerned about their job or role being displaced.
Top work and career AI concerns
Becoming too reliant on AI 36%
Privacy or data security risks 31%
My skills becoming outdated 27%
Having to constantly keep up with new tools 27%
Making mistakes because AI outputs are inaccurate 26%
Ethical risks around how AI is used 24%
My work becoming less creative or human 22%
My job or role being displaced 20%
Fewer entry-level opportunities in my profession 17%
My workplace not giving enough guidance or training 12%
Other 1%
None of the above 21%
Many employers, however, are still framing AI anxiety mainly through the lens of job loss when the worker reality is more nuanced.
The question is not only, “Will AI replace me?”
It is also, “What happens to me if I keep using it?”
It comes as half of workers now use AI at least weekly and one in two say their AI use has increased over the past year.
One female worker aged 18 to 24 in food and hospitality, based in regional Australia, described the tension.
“The biggest impact AI is having on my work and career is trusting AI but not knowing if it is telling the truth or not,” she said.
“So I’m afraid when I’m not supposed to be using it I will write something totally wrong which doesn’t sound in my own words.”
Another female worker aged 25 to 34 in marketing put it more bluntly.
“People are using it for everything, even the most simple tasks, so they're losing the ability to think for themselves,” she said.
This is the often overlooked workplace AI issue – AI tools are changing how people work and feel about their own competence.
The report shows, however, most workers are not anti-AI. Many are using it and many see benefits from using it. They are more likely to see AI as positive for their own profession than a negative, and most say it has made no real change to their own career security.
AI’s impact on personal profession
A major opportunity 7%
More positive than negative 25%
Mixed, with both opportunities and risks 34%
More negative than positive 8%
A major threat 5%
Not sure/too early to say 21%
“This helps explain why job displacement is not the top concern,” Breakpoint founder Ian Walker said.
“For many workers the more immediate anxiety is not that AI will suddenly remove their job, but that it may gradually change their relationship with their own skills.”
Around two in three workers agree AI outputs need to be checked carefully, and a similar amount say AI is useful for some tasks but unreliable for others. More than half also say they worry about making mistakes because AI outputs are inaccurate.
For employers, this means reassurance about job losses will not be enough. Workers need reassurance of how they can develop as workers while using AI without losing their ability to do their job without it.
Practical guidance on when AI is useful, when it should be checked, what should not be entered into tools, and where human judgement remains essential will all help strike this balance.
The next phase of AI adoption will therefore be about helping workers use it well, in a way which is good for them, rather than simply assuaging concerns about job loss.
That means role-specific training, clear rules and honest communication about how AI will reshape work. Without that, workplaces run the risk of a workforce that uses AI more while trusting its own ability to use it less.
