Employers face a growing challenge as artificial intelligence (AI) reshapes how work is done, with new research from WTW highlighting a rise in the ‘fear of becoming obsolete’ among employees.
WTW’s 2026 Employee Experience (EX) Global Market Study points to a widening gap between the pace of technological change and employee readiness. While AI adoption is accelerating rapidly, many organisations are not yet equipped to support their workforce through the transition.
According to the study, 59% of employers expect AI to fundamentally change how employee experience is messaged, managed and delivered within the next three years, rising to 89% over the next decade. At the same time, the share of work handled through automation and digital tools is expected to more than double, from 14% today to 31% within three years. The study finds that this creates fertile ground for employees to fear they will become obsolete, as they question their relevance in a more automated workplace.
To counter this, WTW has identified the need for employers to shift from only measuring employee engagement, as an indicator of how people feel about their work and their willingness to give effort, to employee impact, as a measure of how effectively people execute and adapt to deliver results.
To achieve this, employers can design a deliberate High Impact Employee Experience (HIEX). This approach focuses on building trust, developing skills and providing clarity about how roles will evolve alongside technology. Specifically there are four enabling conditions that are most closely linked to achieving a HIEX:
- Clarity – knowing what matters and why. Employees understand priorities, decision rights, and how their work connects to strategy
- Confidence – Believing decisions make sense and support is there. This leads to trust in leadership decisions and belief in how change is managed
- Capability – having the skills, tools and readiness to adapt to enable current performance and future transformation
- Connection – feeling valued, recognised and part of something meaningful, that sustains performance over time
The rewards for organisations that achieve High Impact Employee Experience are clear. The study shows that the 34% of employers who sustained EX as a priority over the past three years and continue to do so consistently outperformed their peers on productivity, profitability and workforce outcomes. WTW identifies these organisations as Employee Experience (EX) Leaders.
EX Leaders are more likely be delivering on the 4 conditions and achieving superior business outcomes, such as 23% increase in profits, 8% one-year revenue growth and significantly better workforce incomes. These Employee Experience leaders are more likely to identify their employees as high impact, with 91% reporting that employees believe strongly in the organisation’s goals and objectives, 87% saying that employees would recommend the organisation as a good place to work.
“Employers have a powerful opportunity to strengthen trust, protect employee wellbeing and help people thrive through change,” said Jill Havely, Global Employee Experience Leader at WTW.
“Employees aren’t just watching AI reshape work, they’re feeling it, living it and questioning how they’ll fit in the future. Organisations that intentionally design an employee experience to address this anxiety can replace uncertainty with confidence and help people see a future where they still matter.”
About the Survey
WTW’s 2026 Employee Experience Global Market Study was conducted in April 2026. 549 respondents completed the survey globally with 5.6 million employees at responding organisations.
