As leadership optimism remains high, workers express increased frustration with forced adoption, burnout, and job security fears. 

By Gillian Manning 

While companies hurry to implement new technology into employee workflows, new research reveals that employee sentiment toward AI is worsening.  

Glassdoor’s recent analysis shows a rise in employee feedback regarding AI implementation, alongside a decline in worker satisfaction with how companies are utilizing the technology. 

Glassdoor analyzed employee review data and found that AI mentions in workplace reviews jumped 240% between May 2025 and May 2026. However, while 81% of AI-related comments were positive back in 2019, that optimism has subsided significantly. In 2026, 53% of worker reviews cite AI as a “con,” compared to just 43% viewing it as a “pro” and 4% expressing mixed opinions. 

According to the report, leadership and those in the C-suite have had the least amount of exposure to AI and have the highest outlook on it out of any other demographic, with 67% of reviews mentioning the tech from this group being positive. Those working in data and analytics, however, have the highest AI exposure levels and also the highest rate of negative comments on the tech; reviews from this demographic mentioning AI were 55% positive and 45% negative.  

According to the report, worker discontent comes from multiple concerns. Among critical reviews, top grievances include: 

• concerns regarding AI-driven job replacement (20%); 

• frustration with forced adoption of AI tools (14%); 

• perceptions that leadership prioritizes AI over core business goals (13%); 

• AI usage for employee communications or surveillance (10%); 

• slow organizational adoption speed (9%); 

• unrealistic performance expectations surrounding AI gains (8%); and 

• vulnerability to broader industry disruption (7%). 

The Glassdoor analysis also found the following. 

• Workers praising AI primarily cite company benefits from the broader AI boom (44%) or effective internal implementation (41%). 

• Employees who post AI-critical feedback are 3.7 times more likely to report job insecurity or burnout compared to other workers. 

• Critical reviewers are six times as likely to cite layoffs, with 25% of all negative AI reviews explicitly mentioning them. 

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