Insights

September 10, 2026

Two employee communications advisors on what’s actually happening inside organizations as AI moves from experimentation to implementation, and why “learn AI or lose your job” may be one of the most damaging messages leaders have sent.

Global Gateway Advisors CEO Matthew Doering sat down with employee and organization communications advisors Ann Melinger, CEO of bink., and Ethan McCarty, founder and CEO of Integral, to discuss what leaders are getting wrong about AI disruption and how communicators can help organizations navigate what comes next.

Through August, U.S. employers attributed 116,175 announced job cuts to AI. Meanwhile, Glean’s 2026 Work AI Index found that while 75% of employees said AI made them more productive, just 13% said their organization was performing significantly better because of AI.

Something is getting lost between the individual and the enterprise. But Melinger wonders whether part of that gap is rooted in a lack of clarity: Do employees actually understand what better organizational performance through AI is supposed to look like?

The adoption era is over. Most companies haven’t replaced it with anything.

In the early rush to embrace generative AI, the mandate was often simple: Get employees using it. “For such a long time, especially in the earlier days of AI, it was all about adoption, adoption. Just use it, just use it,” Melinger said. “And now it’s like, OK, we’re using it, but what’s it accomplishing?”

Melinger is pushing clients to ask a different question. “Stop asking, ‘What do we need to do to drive adoption?’” she said. “Ask instead: To what end? Where are we trying to go with this?”

Economics is also changing the calculus. McCarty pointed to the rising cost of tokens for advanced AI models, particularly as companies gravitate toward the most powerful and expensive options. “Why am I spending $250,000 a year to replace this person who is earning $80,000?” he said.

McCarty sees organizations becoming more discriminating about where AI can accelerate work or improve quality and where the costs and risks may outweigh the value. “Is this company using AI in a way that’s making it better, versus, are the people at this company using AI in a way that makes them better?” he said.

“Learn AI or lose your job” is driving bad behavior at work.

Integral’s research identifies three primary drivers of positive employee behavior: manager activation, freedom to speak up and trust. Two factors stand out on the negative side: job lock and AI job concern.

Among employees with low AI job concern, Integral predicts negative workplace behaviors, including disengagement, attrition and even sabotage, at about 10%. Among those with high concern, that rises to 39%.

“All that effort that went into ‘use AI or lose your job’ dialed that factor up so significantly,” McCarty said. “That is now completely in the narrative, the perception of the workplace.”

The fear is particularly pronounced among younger workers. Half of Gen Z employees who use AI worry about their roles being displaced, compared with 29% of boomers.

“Who’s coming into the workforce? The most concerned people about AI,” McCarty said. “Right now is the time to try to intercept that population with not just messages, but actual policy changes that will allow them to potentially thrive.”

More training does not mean less fear. Often it is the reverse.

One of Integral’s more counterintuitive findings challenges the idea that training alone can solve AI anxiety.

“We found that there’s a correlation between people who have more exposure and training, and people who have greater fear,” McCarty said. “You see this new tool, it comes in, and it’s so effective that you’re like, oh my God, I’m going to lose my job.”

Training still matters. But if organizations treat enablement as the cure for anxiety without addressing employees’ underlying fears about what the technology means for their future, they may be solving for the wrong problem.

Stop diagnosing anxiety as resistance.

“Don’t just diagnose anxiety as employees are resisting it, but really get under what it means,” Melinger said. That means determining whether employees are struggling with capability, confidence or uncertainty about the consequences, each of which requires a different response.

“One of the most important ways to reduce that anxiety is to involve employees in shaping how we rethink work around AI,” Melinger said. “Involve them in it, rather than just leaving that vacuum for it.”

Because employees will fill that vacuum themselves.

“Most people satisfy ambiguity with negative assumptions,” McCarty said. “And it’s not about a dim view of humanity. It’s about how people protect themselves.”

Managers need authority, not another set of talking points.

bink’s Culture at Work research found that more than half of those responsible for culture lack the authority to influence the decisions that shape it. Melinger sees a similar dynamic playing out with managers during AI transformation: They’re often expected to lead employees through changes they had little role in shaping. “You’re giving them accountability without any authority,” Melinger said.

That makes simply handing managers another communications toolkit particularly problematic. “Don’t just hit them with another set of talking points,” she said. “Actually engage them in the process. This has to happen way upstream, before you’re actually to the point of communicating about it.”

For Melinger, that means communicators should help leaders identify gaps between the AI narrative and the organizational reality, not simply explain decisions once they’ve been made. McCarty offered three rules for leaders navigating AI transformation:

• Name what is ending, not just what is coming. Be explicit about which tasks or processes will change or disappear. “The specificity is everything,” McCarty said.
• Fund the hours. If employees are expected to learn AI, give them paid time to do it. Otherwise, upskilling becomes an unfunded mandate, particularly for managers already being asked to lead through the transformation.
• Let managers translate locally. Give them enough context and authority to explain what AI means for their teams and shorten the time horizon. “It’s really hard to say, OK, here’s what’s coming in two years,” McCarty said. “It’s hard to know what’s coming in two months.”

An August 2026 Gallup study found employees who strongly agree their manager supports AI use were more likely to report that AI had improved their workplace culture.

You can build trust without certainty.

Leaders often assume they need definitive answers before they can reassure employees. Melinger argues the opposite is true.

“You can build trust without certainty,” she said. “In fact, when leaders are candid about what they know, what they don’t know and what they’re still figuring out, employees have more reason to believe them when they do have an answer.”

A leader who says, “I don’t know where this is going. I have some ideas,” is more credible than one making promises about what AI will or won’t mean for employees’ jobs.

McCarty pointed to a related lesson from Integral’s research: “When leaders admit they’re wrong, trust goes up.”

Listening matters, too. Organizations need forums where employees can raise concerns candidly. And if those forums are quiet, leaders shouldn’t necessarily assume employees are satisfied. The conversation may simply be happening somewhere else.

If you are still measuring adoption, you are already behind.

“Companies that are still simply measuring adoption are already behind,” Melinger said. Organizations seeing stronger results from AI, she added, aren’t necessarily using it everywhere. They’re using it intentionally where it improves the work.

Glean’s research supports that distinction: Workers at organizations reporting transformative AI results actually spend a smaller share of their AI-related time directly using AI than workers at organizations reporting little, no or uncertain impact.

McCarty applies a simple test he has used through previous technology shifts: If 100% of employees used the new technology, would that itself constitute success? “The answer is always no,” he said.

The better questions are about outcomes: Which workflows are improving? Do employees understand the strategy? Are managers equipped to lead? Is trust growing or eroding?

There’s also a risk hidden inside adoption numbers. Integral found that roughly half of employees using AI at work were doing so through personal licenses, something McCarty described as a “pants on fire” finding for risk and compliance teams.

His prescription: Make sanctioned AI tools so clear and frictionless that employees don’t feel the need to find their own workaround.

Labor is an asset, not a line item.

McCarty argues that AI transformation also requires leaders to reconsider how they think about the economics of their workforce. “Thinking about employees and labor as a cost misreads the situation,” he said. “Employees are an asset, and if you invest in an asset it appreciates in value. It doesn’t degrade in value.”

Integral has developed an economic model weighing costs such as excess attrition, productivity drag and brand damage against the value created through stronger retention, productivity and employee behavior.

The broader point is less about any one calculation than the mindset behind it: AI shouldn’t simply become another mechanism for reducing labor costs. Organizations should be asking how technology can help people create more value.

The bottom line

Gallup titled its recent study “AI’s Effect on Workplace Culture.” Melinger sees it differently.

“I don’t think AI determines what happens to your culture,” Melinger said. “I think it exposes what’s already true about your culture.”

McCarty offered a similar challenge to leaders: “The future of work is not being written by AI and economic cycles. Every leader is writing it right now, in the conditions that they create.”

Key upcoming events

AI + Tech

• Reuters Momentum AI (Austin, Sept. 24-25) Senior enterprise leaders explore how to move AI from experimentation to execution, with a focus on scaling technology, managing risk, leading organizational change and delivering measurable business results. Speakers include Anthony Moisant, CIO and chief security officer of Indeed; Leigh-Ann Russell, CIO and global head of engineering at BNY; and Jennifer Zmuda, CIO of UnitedHealth Group.
• CNBC AI Forum (Dallas, Oct. 1) Business leaders, entrepreneurs and researchers explore how AI is reshaping work, the workforce and customer experiences across industries. Speakers include Bret Taylor, co-founder of Sierra and chairman of OpenAI; Andy Markus, chief data and AI officer at AT&T; and Navrina Singh, CEO of Credo AI.
  

Health + Healthcare

• WSJ Future of Health (Washington, D.C., Oct. 7) Healthcare leaders, investors and policymakers examine the forces reshaping American medicine, from AI diagnostics and GLP-1s to mental health, longevity and the rising cost of care. Speakers include George Yancopoulos, chief scientific officer of Regeneron; Julie Yoo, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz; and Eric Lefkofsky, CEO of Tempus.
• STAT Summit (Boston and virtual, Oct. 14-15) Leaders across medicine, biotech, public health and policy examine the scientific, political and technological forces disrupting healthcare, from AI and rising treatment costs to pharmaceutical breakthroughs and chronic disease. Speakers include Sally Kornbluth, president of MIT; Rob Califf, former FDA commissioner; and Christopher Viehbacher, CEO of Biogen.

Leadership + Ideas 

• The Atlantic Festival (New York City, Sept. 17-19) Leaders across politics, business, media and culture come together for three days of conversations, performances and live events examining the ideas shaping the moment. Speakers include Pete Buttigieg, former U.S. secretary of transportation; Whitney Wolfe Herd, CEO of Bumble; and Malcolm Gladwell, journalist and author.
• Concordia Annual Summit (New York City, Sept. 20-23) Business, government and nonprofit leaders gather during UNGA Week to discuss global challenges and opportunities for public-private collaboration. Speakers include Theresa May, former U.K. prime minister; Ivan Duque, former president of Colombia; and Ryan Gellert, CEO of Patagonia.
• Forbes Future of Work Summit (New York City, Oct. 6) Business and talent leaders examine how AI is reshaping work and putting a premium on distinctly human skills, including communication, judgment, trust and leadership. Speakers include Suzy Welch, professor of management at NYU Stern; Lorraine “Lo” Stomski, chief talent officer at Walmart; and Faisal Masud, president and GM of global commercial software and retail at HP.
• Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit (Santa Barbara, Oct. 12-14) Leading women in business explore how power and leadership are evolving amid geopolitical uncertainty, economic volatility and rapid technological change. Speakers include Hailey Bieber, founder and chief creative officer of rhode; Luana Lopes Lara, COO of Kalshi; and Latriece Watkins, CEO of Sam’s Club.

Marketing + Communications

• Marketing Brew Summit (New York City, Sept. 30) Creators, analysts and marketing innovators explore how human intuition, data and emerging technologies are reshaping strategy, storytelling and growth through strategic sessions and tactical playbooks. Speakers include Radhika Duggal, CMO of Major League Soccer; Magno Herran, VP of brand marketing and partnerships at Netflix; and Sarah Meron, chief communications and brand officer at IBM.
• Axios Media Trends Live (New York City, Oct. 20) Media leaders and innovators explore the trends transforming publishing, entertainment, sports, advertising and technology. Speakers include Emily Sundberg, journalist and founder of Feed Me (a friends-of-the-firm Summer Edit favorite); Shari Redstone, former chair of Paramount Global; and Emma Tucker, editor-in-chief of The Wall Street Journal.

Bookmark Global Gateway Advisors’ event tracker, updated weekly.

Media news

• Creator journalism is the future. We’ve been seeing the signs (the rise of the newsfluencer) for some time, but now Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism is making it official, offering a Creator Journalism concentration as part of its Master of Science in Journalism program.
• AI has entered the opinion pages. A Semafor analysis of 310 guest columns published by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post found 10 were flagged as at least 80% AI-generated, while another 40 were identified as partially AI-generated. Billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller, whose recent Journal op-ed received a 100% AI score, was unapologetic: He said he now uses AI for all his writing for the same reason he uses a calculator to do math.
• The line between human and AI writing is getting blurrier. With AI-generated writing proliferating, so have efforts to flag it. But those technologies come with their own problems, particularly the risk of falsely labeling human writing as AI-generated. Trinidadian writer Jamir Nazir, for example, was accused of using AI after detection software flagged his prize-winning short story, an allegation he denied. “We trained this thing on all of our language,” Nazir said. “And now it is impossible to trust each other.”
• TIME is betting big on AI coverage. The publication is expanding its AI reporting team and plans to turn its AI newsletter, In the Loop, into a five-day-a-week briefing later this year. It’s also launching its first TIME100 AI Leadership Forum in Washington, D.C., next year.
• The Information launches a new AI show. AI Deep Dive, a weekly live show focused on the technology behind the AI boom, will feature interviews and live conversations about the “thornier” technical problems facing AI, including robotics. Hosted by AI reporter Rocket Drew, the show debuts Sept. 14 and will stream Mondays at noon PT.
• CNBC is scaling back its international footprint. The network is closing its Hong Kong bureau and ending several daily live shows, including Inside India, The China Connection and Europe Early Edition. The changes follow CNBC’s spinout from Comcast into Versant earlier this year and a round of newsroom layoffs.
• Know a CEO with an interesting routine? Business Insider is looking for founders, CEOs and creative entrepreneurs to feature in its “Power Hours” series, which takes readers inside a day in the life of business leaders. If that sounds like you or a client, send your pitch to kimanzi@kconstable.com.
• Deirdre Bosa is getting her own AI show. The former CNBC anchor is partnering with Yahoo Finance on a new hourlong daily live video show. Launching this fall, the show will explore how AI is reshaping markets, jobs and the economy.
• What’s next for Maria Bartiromo? After her abrupt departure from Fox News — reportedly after sharing internal Fox communications with the White House — Bartiromo is said to be in talks with CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss about a potential role at the network. Meanwhile, the White House isn’t happy about her ouster: Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro said the administration called Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott to tell her the decision was “totally unacceptable.”

Media moves

• Ashley Gold (formerly Axios) was hired as a senior technology correspondent at Semafor. 
• Elyse Betters Picaro (formerly Valnet) joined ZDNET as editor in chief.
• Naomi Nix (formerly The Washington Post) was hired by TIME as a senior technology correspondent.
• Lizzy Lawrence (formerly STAT) will now be reporting on the pharma beat at The Wall Street Journal, while Alex Janin moved to the pharma beat and Josh Jamerson (formerly deputy politics editor) moved to London for a new role as deputy editor for Europe business, finance and economics.
• Rachel Kurzius (formerly The Washington Post) joined Fast Company as a senior design writer.
• Bradley Olson (formerly The Wall Street Journal) joined Axios as managing editor of AI and technology coverage, while Megan Morrone and health reporter Maya Goldman are departing the organization.
• Christopher Rowland (formerly The Washington Post) is joining The New York Times as a healthcare reporter on the business desk, while Eric Boodman (formerly STAT) was hired as a national science correspondent and Zeyi Yang (formerly WIRED) as a science reporter covering China.
• Asa Hikin (formerly Ad Age) was hired by EMARKETER as a senior writer and analyst, covering all things AI and ad tech.
• Will Lloyd (formerly The New Statesman) was hired by the Financial Times as a senior writer. 
• Aaron Mok joined Inc. Magazine as a tech reporter.
• Angelica Peebles announced she will be leaving CNBC.
• David Lim left Politico after more than six years as a healthcare reporter.

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