27% of U.S. Workers Now Fear AI Will Make Their Jobs Obsolete

Twenty-seven percent of U.S. workers worry that technology could soon make their jobs obsolete — the highest share Gallup has ever recorded, and seven points above a year ago. Among workers aged 18 to 44, the figure reaches 34%. The anxiety now has a name in HR circles: FOBO, the fear of becoming obsolete.

The number matters because employers are spending heavily on AI rollouts while their workforces quietly wonder whether a job will still exist when the rollout ends. Neither side can say which skills will matter in six months. What employers can control, as Sandra Moran of Schoox (a learning platform vendor for frontline enterprises) frames it, is whether people get the tools and the opportunity to keep learning as the work changes.

What does FOBO look like on the floor?

It builds slowly, which is why it gets missed. Frontline managers, who see their people daily, are the likeliest to catch it:

• An employee who used to jump in with answers goes quiet.
• Effort drops on tasks that technology has started to automate.
• A new tool draws no feedback where it used to draw questions.
• Someone asks directly whether AI will take over part of their job, or all of it.

That last one is FOBO speaking out loud. The rest are FOBO speaking in body language.

Is more training actually the answer?

Not always. Moran draws a distinction that most training budgets ignore: a skills gap means someone genuinely lacks the knowledge to do a task; a confidence gap means they have the skill and don't believe they can use it. The two look identical from across the floor, and treating one like the other wastes time.

The support deficit is real. In Schoox's own research, 66% of young frontline workers say their company doesn't provide the right training to help them perform better. Moran's recommended alternatives to generic coursework:

• Coaching conversations aimed at future expectations
• Short reinforcements that bring a lesson back a few days later
• On-the-job checklists
• Hands-on practice before a new tool goes live
• Direct feedback about what someone is doing right

Managers carry more weight than most employers assume. Gallup found that employees who strongly agree their organization cares about their wellbeing are six to seven points less likely to report concern about being displaced. The researchers added a sharper observation: workers who never hear from a manager about how AI makes them more valuable may start to feel expendable.

What do employees actually want?

Schoox found that 40% of younger frontline workers say more purposeful learning and development would keep them in their job another year. Only 23% picked more perks. Development beats snacks, roughly two to one.

The three-step model Moran proposes:

1. Define what the job really requires, including skills emerging as technology changes the work.
2. Assess what skills employees have today and close the gap with targeted training.
3. Show career paths clearly, so people see where they could grow — not just which modules are assigned.

Timing matters as much as content. A course library assembled last year may already be behind; learning engineered with AI can shape training around each employee's current and future responsibilities in a way a generic catalog can't. Her gut check is blunt: could an employee use what they learned on their next shift? Telling a server or a line operator to "embrace change" doesn't help, especially mid-shift.

What about roles that genuinely disappear?

The hardest case needs a plan too. If a role becomes obsolete, HR can map the affected employees' existing skills to open positions, and managers can be encouraged to consider internal candidates before external searches begin. Everyone else on the team will notice how departing colleagues were treated. That observation will shape their own plans.

None of this requires a five-year job forecast. Moran's counsel for this quarter: have frontline managers watch confidence and engagement alongside performance, tell employees plainly how the company will invest in their development as AI arrives, and name the skills each role will need next, with the career paths those skills lead to. FOBO thrives when people can't picture their own future at the company — and AI adoption, Moran argues, depends on the confidence that picture restores.