As AI reshapes work in the US, therapists hear a growing fear: ‘Am I becoming obsolete?’
For a growing number of workers, career anxiety is no longer just about performance reviews or layoffs. It’s about something harder to see — and harder to outrun.Artificial intelligence.According to a recent CNBC report, therapists across the U.S. say more workers are bringing AI-related fears into therapy sessions, describing everything from job loss to a lingering sense that their skills — and even their professional identity — may no longer matter.“I’ve had clients lose their jobs due to AI, and it’s something we’ve processed in our sessions,” said Emma Kobil, a trauma counselor in Denver, speaking to CNBC. Many of her patients express “shock, disbelief and fear about navigating a changing career landscape where their skills are no longer needed.”That unease is becoming increasingly common. More than a third of workers — 38% — say they worry AI will make some or all of their job duties outdated, according to a July 2025 survey by the American Psychological Association cited in the report.For therapists, the emotional pattern is strikingly consistent.“What I hear most often is a fear of becoming obsolete,” Harvey Lieberman, a New York–based clinical psychologist, told CNBC. As AI advances, he said, people begin questioning “their judgment, their choices or their future.”
When job loss feels existential
Unlike traditional layoffs, displacement tied to AI can cut deeper. Losing a role to technology often feels less like a business decision and more like a verdict on one’s value.“It may feel as if the universe is saying, ‘You are no longer needed,’” said Ben Yalom, a San Diego psychotherapist, in the CNBC report. That experience, he explained, “goes deeply into questions of personal value,” making it more destabilizing than a typical downsizing.The numbers reinforce why those fears feel so real. AI was a factor in nearly 55,000 U.S. layoffs in 2025, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas data referenced by CNBC, and a recent MIT study found that AI can already replace roughly 11% of the U.S. labor market.Major employers are openly acknowledging the shift. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said the company let go of 4,000 customer support workers after AI began handling about half of that workload. Firms like Accenture and Lufthansa have also pointed to AI as part of recent restructuring efforts, per CNBC.For workers caught in the middle, uncertainty can be psychologically draining — especially when companies don’t clearly say whether AI played a role.“They are left in a gray zone that magnifies anxiety and self-doubt,” Lieberman said.
A career crisis — and a moment to reflect
Riana Elyse Anderson, a licensed clinical psychologist and Columbia University associate professor, summed up the emotional fallout succinctly in the CNBC report: “People don’t know where they fit into this new society.”For decades, clear career pathways — learning to code, entering tech, climbing corporate ladders — promised stability. That promise now feels shakier.But therapists also see an opportunity hidden inside the disruption.“Our society is changing quickly,” Kobil said. “Allow yourself to grieve and comfort the parts of you that feel shocked, hopeless and afraid right now.”Anderson encourages workers to pause the urgent search for “the right” future-proof career and instead reflect more broadly. “Do some inventory,” she said. “Maybe at this time, take stock of who you are.”For some, that may mean returning to school or pivoting industries. For others, it’s about loosening the grip between identity and job title.“You are so much more than your work,” Kobil emphasized, reminding clients that skills — like bodies — change over time, but self-worth shouldn’t vanish with them.
Regaining control in an AI-driven workplace
While anxiety is understandable, therapists warn against retreating into despair.“Learning enough about AI to understand where it genuinely alters work, and where it does not, often restores a sense of agency,” Lieberman said in the CNBC report.Career coach Rhiannon Batchelder echoed that view, noting that many workers are already being asked to help automate parts of their own jobs. In that environment, she said, basic AI literacy can be empowering.“For most workers, understanding the basics of AI will be an asset,” Batchelder told CNBC. “During times of uncertainty, information is always powerful.”As AI continues to transform the workplace, the therapists interviewed by CNBC agree on one thing: the fear is real, rational — and deeply human. The challenge now is helping workers navigate not just new technologies, but a redefinition of what it means to be valuable in a rapidly changing world.
