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As companies race to adopt artificial intelligence, a growing body of research suggests many executives are making a costly mistake: abandoning the human connection that makes AI work in the first place.
Stanford psychology professor Jamil Zaki, writing in Harvard Business Review, warns that the business case for empathy has never been stronger—even as CEOs are pulling back from it. Businessolver’s 2025 State of Workplace Empathy report found that 59% of CEOs now consider empathy nonessential—up 12 points from the prior year—and nearly half say they don’t have time to connect with their employees.
Zaki writes that the consequences are measurable. Executives wildly overestimate employee enthusiasm for AI adoption—76% believe their workers are on board, while the actual figure is 31%. That disconnect flows directly from leaders who don’t understand how their people feel. Workers gripped by what researchers call “FOBO”—fear of becoming obsolete—are unlikely to champion tools designed to replace them. A 2026 survey found that nearly one-third of employees, and 44% of Gen Z workers, admit to actively sabotaging their company’s AI strategies.
Zaki’s prescription starts with replacing announcements with conversations. Rather than dictating AI strategy from the top, he urges executives to involve employees in co-creating it— identifying how AI can amplify meaningful work rather than eliminate it. He also stresses investing in front-line managers, who by 2025 had become the single most important driver of workplace empathy.
“The fastest, most-effective path to using technology well,” Zaki writes, “involves working with the people you’re asking to use it, not around them.”
Get the rest of Zaki’s recommendations for a successful adoption from Harvard Business Review.
