By Dr Manoj Krishna

I was at a global HR event in Paris recently and was struck by how much of the conversation revolved around artificial intelligence.

One company told me its technology could screen 100,000 job applications. Another said it could predict which employees would become future leaders. These conversations illustrate the scale of ambition. AI is reshaping how organisations recruit, manage and develop their people.

Poor engagement and its consequences

I was surprised that there was very little discussion about why so many employees are disconnected from their work.

Gallup's State of the Global Workplace 2026 report puts employee engagement at just 12% in Europe and 20% globally. Worldwide, 64% of employees are not engaged and 16% are actively disengaged.

Gallup describes those who are not engaged as psychologically detached from their work, and those who are actively disengaged as unhappy and resentful that their needs are not being met. This is a human challenge every business needs to address.

The business implications are substantial. Gallup’s research links higher team engagement with stronger productivity and profitability, and lower absenteeism and turnover. Making processes more efficient matters. So does understanding and supporting the people working within them. Gallup estimates that low engagement cost the global economy approximately $10 trillion in lost productivity in 2025.

The human experience of AI

Alongside the excitement, several people I spoke to expressed anxiety about AI. Would their jobs disappear? How would their roles change? Would they be able to keep up?

Where AI is used to monitor performance, there is another question: will employees experience it as support, or surveillance?

AI can remove tedious tasks and free people for more meaningful work. But it can also contribute to job losses. These worries are real.

Could human intelligence be the answer?

By human intelligence (HI), I mean our capacity to understand ourselves and relate wisely to others. It includes self-awareness, emotional intelligence, empathy, resilience, communication and sound judgement.

At the heart of human intelligence is deeper self-awareness: understanding how our minds work, including the patterns operating outside our immediate awareness. Our minds often react automatically, drawing on past experiences, expectations and fears. A colleague’s brief email can feel like rejection. Someone else’s promotion can trigger comparison. An organisational change can become entangled with fears about our own worth.

Consider an employee hearing that AI is being introduced into their team. Their mind may leap from “my role will change” to “I will lose my job and won’t cope.” The uncertainty is real, but the worst-case outcome is not yet a fact. Deeper self-awareness helps us notice how our thinking can turn a possibility into an apparent certainty, overestimate the threat and underestimate our ability to cope. Recognising this can create space to ask questions, seek support and prepare for change with greater clarity.

When we notice these reactions and explore what is driving them, we create room for a more considered response. We can distinguish what has happened from the meaning we have attached to it. Alongside supportive working conditions, this may help reduce stress and anxiety, improve how we handle disagreement and prevent everyday friction from becoming lasting conflict.

This understanding also invites us to examine where we look for our happiness. Recognition, achievement and rewards matter, but the satisfaction they bring can fade. We can become absorbed in what we lack, overlook what we have, or depend heavily on others’ approval. Recognising those tendencies may help us build a steadier sense of wellbeing alongside our ambitions.

A shared responsibility

There is a crucial qualification: self-awareness cannot compensate for bullying, unfair pay, excessive workloads or poor leadership. Employees should not be asked to become more resilient so that organisations can avoid changing harmful practices.

Employers need to improve working conditions while also helping people build their inner resources. And leaders need these capabilities as much as their teams do.

What HR can do

For HR, this means helping everyone in the organisation, particularly managers, develop deeper self-awareness and emotional skills, alongside the AI rollout. This also means explaining what AI will change, involving employees in its introduction and providing practical opportunities to retrain.

These capabilities need to become part of everyday work: managers practising listening and constructive feedback; teams reflecting on difficult interactions; employees having time and support to apply what they discover.

A workshop can begin that process. Reflection, practice and reinforcement help carry it into daily life.

This is the focus of our work at HappierMe: helping people develop self-understanding and emotional skills through reflection and daily practice, so they can thrive in their personal and professional lives.

As organisations invest in AI, they should also invest in the human capabilities that help people navigate change, build trust and collaborate well.

AI will change how we work. Developing our human intelligence can help us thrive alongside it.

Dr Manoj Krishna is a former spine surgeon and the founder of HappierMe, a wellbeing and life-skills platform. Find out more at happierme.app.

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