Almost everyone has a part of their work they really care about. For one person it is an analysis they dig into themselves, for another the conversation with a client they help move forward. When AI takes over that part, the work soon feels less meaningful.
People want AI to do the dull work
Researchers at MIT looked at how generative AI changes people’s work. Workers want AI to take over dull, repetitive work. The work that makes their job interesting, they would rather keep. They also saw that people who notice their employer investing in their growth use AI better and feel more positive about it (MIT Sloan).
The worry shows in the Netherlands too. TNO, the Dutch research organisation, asked around 60,000 employees how they see their work changing. Of those who expect their work to change in the next five years, almost 40% think it will become less enjoyable (TNO, 2026).
Further away from the people you do it for
Jon Jachimowicz of Harvard Business School points to a less visible risk. AI can put people further away from the person they do the work for, such as the client, the patient or the colleague. When you lose that contact, the work feels less meaningful. And people who find their work less meaningful put in less effort (Harvard Business School, 2026).
Gallup also sees employees feeling less connected to the purpose of their organisation, and less often feeling that their opinion counts (Gallup, 2026). If AI comes on top of that without anyone looking at meaning, the gap grows.
Dedication hangs on a few moments
Dedication is one of the three features of work engagement: the feeling that your work has meaning, that you are proud of it and that it challenges you. Meaning usually comes from a few moments in which you notice you are really helping someone, more than from the whole set of tasks. If AI takes over exactly those moments, someone is left with a job that is more efficient but feels emptier.
It can also go the other way. If AI takes over work someone would gladly be rid of, in theory there is more time left for what does have meaning. Which way it goes depends on which work you give to AI, and on who decides.
When AI talks to AI
AI-written texts often cost the person receiving them time. BetterUp and the Stanford Social Media Lab surveyed more than 1,100 office workers. In the previous month, 40% of them had received work made with AI that looked tidy but delivered little. Sorting out or fixing each piece took almost two hours on average. About half then saw the sender as less capable and less reliable (BetterUp, 2025).
Customers also want to be able to reach a person. In a Gartner survey of 3,566 customers, half say contact becomes easier when a company uses AI. But 87% want to be able to speak to an employee whenever they need to (Gartner, 2026). Companies that run on personal contact need to take that into account.
Berd: what counts as dull differs from person to person
Berd Warmelts of IMPACT on the Job sees in practice that “dull work” is harder to pin down than it seems. “What is dull work for one employee is really important work for another. It’s about how you look at your work.” Berd warns managers not to label tasks as dull or unimportant too quickly. “You risk offending colleagues who get their pride and enjoyment from exactly that work with such a careless remark.”
According to Berd, the promise that AI frees up time often doesn’t hold at the moment either. Many companies are actually losing time, partly because customers use AI themselves. Long, AI-written messages come in that take a lot of time and energy to read properly. You can process them with AI again, but then AI is talking to AI. “That jars most at companies that put personal contact with the customer first. People there say: that’s exactly why I work here.”
That is why Berd prefers to look one level above the individual tasks. “People may get satisfaction from AI. What matters more is that they get meaning from what you stand for as a company: the purpose of your company. That has to be in order, especially now.”
How to keep meaning in the work
- Start with the purpose of your company. Make clear together what you stand for as an organisation and why people work with you. Test every use of AI against that.
- Don’t call a task dull on someone else’s behalf. Ask each person which part of the work gives them energy and pride. What you find dull may be the heart of the work for a colleague.
- Let the team choose what AI does. People know best which work they would gladly hand over. Those who have a say keep a grip on their own work.
- Agree where AI does not talk to AI. Decide together in which customer contact a person leads the conversation, especially if personal contact is your strength.
- Don’t count on free time that isn’t there yet. Look honestly at where AI costs time, such as reading long AI messages from customers, and talk about it in the team.
See how dedication is doing
A satisfaction score tells you little about whether people still find their work meaningful. With the Employee Engagement Survey by Leiders.nl, you see per team how dedication and energy are doing. That way you notice in time when AI is eating away at meaning.
Also read From fear to grip and AI and work engagement: it depends on the manager.
