We’ve talked about coworking with AI in the workplace, but what happens when an employee turns to an AI or humanoid robot at the office (or at home) and feels true identification with it? A sense of commiseration over the long day? A level of envy for how fast it tabulated the numbers?
A recent thought piece in The Economist argues this science-fiction reality may be closer than we think because the more AIs become like us, the easier we connect with them.
“As AIs become better at displaying something that looks like consciousness, the number of humans treating them as beings with inner lives will grow, especially once LLMs are embodied in humanoid robots. Imagine how close people will feel to their AIs when they spend much of their time with bot-companions, or are brought up by them, or seek their advice and their solace, or share their most intimate secrets with them.”
Measuring Inner Life: Researchers identified 14 properties associated with consciousness, including attention, information sharing across a system, recurrent processing, and agency. And a Digital Consciousness Model evaluates AI against more than 200 indicators drawn from 10 scientific theories of consciousness.
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This model starts with a 20% baseline assumption that an LLM could be conscious, then adjusts that probability based on the evidence.
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The analysis found that newer LLMs, compared to those from 2022, demonstrate more agency, self-sustained activity, and complex cognitive abilities – similar to a state of consciousness.
Why it matters for employers: Employees are already interacting with AI in increasingly human ways. As AI agents become more autonomous and embedded in daily work, employers may have to think beyond efficiency to questions about emotional attachment, decision-making authority and reducing co-dependency.
The labor angle: If AI agents increasingly perform work alongside employees—and people begin viewing them as more than tools—debates over displacement, worker protections and the boundary between human and machine roles could become much more complicated.
Workplace implications: Companies may eventually need clearer rules around employees’ emotional dependence on AI, the authority given to AI agents, human oversight, and what happens when an AI system is modified, replaced, or shut down. Something worth tracking…
For CHROs, consider how human should we allow workplace AI to become? Right now, CHROs are involved in the intersection of humans and AI and easing that tension, but that could evolve into setting boundaries around anthropomorphic AI, employee interactions with AI agents, and which workplace decisions must remain firmly under human control.
