Two-thirds of knowledge workers regularly feel nostalgic for how their jobs operated before generative AI. According to new research from digital transformation consultancy Adaptavist, 38% say they would remove generative AI tools from the world entirely if given the choice.
‘Remove generative AI from the world’
The vendor-commissioned survey, conducted across 2,500 professionals in the UK, U.S., Canada, Germany and Spain, found that 30% of workers preferred how work operated before generative AI was widely adopted. Another 26% said they had no preference either way. The desire to step back is strongest among younger employees, as 40% of Gen Z and millennial respondents said they would remove generative AI from the world, compared with 32% of Gen X and 29% of Boomers.
Among workers who said they would remove AI, 31% pointed to a loss of creativity, 29% cited concerns about misuse and 28% worried about surveillance and privacy. Nearly half said dealing with low-quality “AI slop” makes their job feel repetitive and less meaningful, and 37% said it has made them less engaged overall.
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An AI ‘verification tax’
There is also what Adaptavist calls a verification tax. Forty-two percent of respondents said they now spend more time checking and correcting AI output than the time they save by using it. Forty-nine percent said poor-quality AI-generated work is actively slowing down their projects, and 55% believe it is dragging down team efficiency broadly.
Half of workers said their performance is now being measured, fairly or not, against AI-generated output. About a quarter said they use AI mainly to keep up with workload demands or to match what colleagues are producing, rather than because it makes their work better.
Neal Riley, AI innovation lead at The Adaptavist Group, said the findings point to a gap in how most organizations track AI success. Riley said it is easier to measure adoption, who is using a tool and how often, than to measure what that tool is actually doing to the quality and meaning of the work itself.
When employees want more AI
The research does not point to a wholesale rejection of AI at work. Sixty-seven percent of respondents said they want their organization to increase AI use, 69% said they trust it is being used ethically and 66% said their employer has been transparent about how it is rolling AI out. But 36% said they often do not understand why they are expected to use AI in their role, and an equal share reported AI fatigue as a result.
“When AI is introduced thoughtfully, with the right guardrails and genuine support for the people using it, it can enhance rather than erode what makes work meaningful and impactful,” said Riley in a report.
If your HR AI pilots keep stalling before production, catch Vic Akosile, head of AI transformation and people strategy at Cloudflare, in “The Architecture of AI Adoption: Why Your HR Pilots Stall and How to Fix It,” at HR Tech 2026. Register at hrtechnologyconference.com/register.
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