Psychological Barriers to the Adoption of Automation and AI in the Workplace: Overcoming Resistance Among Senior Employees

Darya -

This is usually a failure of change management. Yes, there are always going to be a small number of staff of all ages who resist a given change regardless of how well it has been planned and rolled out, but the remainder will usually be supportive if they understand the rationale for the change, have a say in how it is designed and implemented, and their feedback is incorporated into the ongoing sustainment of the changes.

Change fatigue or low change resilience is often a sign of chronic poor change management.

Kiron

I have to disagree with Kiron. The studies I'm familiar with show that most people are uncomfortable with change and take about 2 years to get over that discomfort.

Technology people with 20+ years of experience get very proficient in their tool suite and processes. Whether it is digital transformation of accounting systems or AI automation, the people who were once high level experts are now neophytes along with everyone else. People who are motivated more by community will distrust the new ways until they become generally accepted. A smaller % are motivated more by results even if the methods are still rough and the tools unpopular, and adapt to new changes in 3-4 months by comparison.

To help get past that resistance to change, my best advice is to first understand where their discomfort comes from.
Examples of positive actions you might take: If it's from lack of proficiency, encourage the previous experts to be the new experts. If from a lack of general acceptance, personally promote positivity to the change and celebrate your wins.

First of all, to put this in terms of the PMI, business analyst is on charge to deal with all this type of things along all the solution creation from the time it is in the process to be accepted to the point where the solution is implement then audit and monitoring must be done. Second, I think today is "easy" to avoid or to deal with this type of situations when you make visible to them that they are using AI each day of they life in cel phones, air conditioners, refrigerators, cars, etc, etc.

HBR happens to have a great article today which links resistance to adopting/trusting AI to distrust in leadership: https://hbr.org/2025/03/employees-wont-tru...t-their-leaders

Darya, this is a very common cause of resistance, especially when the change involves an impact on the ways of working for people, particularly those who have been accustomed to the old ways for a long time.

To overcome this, it’s crucial to initiate the change carefully. Start by communicating the purpose and benefits of the new technology clearly to everyone. Achieving buy-in from key stakeholders, including leadership, managers, and employees at all levels, is critical to ensure alignment and minimize pushback. Involving employees early on in the process can also help foster a sense of ownership and reduce feelings of helplessness.

On the other hand, training and support are also key components in the success of any transition to new technology.