Are You Keeping Human?

As AI changes how we work, employers have another investment to consider: the brain health and distinctly human skills their people need to thrive.

How are you using AI? ​​​​​​It’s a question we’re asking everywhere right now. How can AI make us more efficient? What tasks can it take off our plates? Where can it save time?

Those are important questions. But we need to start asking another one: What are we intentionally not giving to AI?

What work should still require us to stop, think, use our judgment, or talk with another person? As we invest in artificial intelligence, we also need to invest in human intelligence.

For employers, that investment goes beyond workforce skills. It connects directly to employee health, well-being, and the outcomes we’re working to improve through our benefits programs.

Your Brain Is Capital, Too

A recent McKinsey Health Institute report introduced a term that caught my attention: brain capital. It combines brain health with the cognitive, interpersonal, self-leadership, and technological skills that help people adapt and contribute.

Think about the skills employers value most: analytical and creative thinking, resilience, flexibility, judgment, and communication. These human skills may become increasingly important as AI takes on more of our work.

McKinsey reports that 59% of employees are expected to need additional training by 2030. The report also points out that workplaces can strengthen or erode brain capital. A healthy brain supports more than good decision-making. It influences how employees manage stress, engage with others, and maintain their health. When brain health suffers, the effects can extend to absenteeism, productivity, and healthcare needs.

>>Take Action: As your organization builds its AI strategy, build a human strategy alongside it. What skills will employees need as AI changes their jobs? How are your workplace culture, well-being initiatives, and benefits supporting employee brain health?

When Faster Isn’t Always Better

One of AI’s biggest promises is productivity. A task that took an hour may take 20 minutes. Something that took 20 minutes may take five.

That’s great, but what happens to the time we save? Too often, we fill it with another task — and another. AI can remove the natural pauses that once existed in our work. We finish faster, move to the next thing faster, and keep going.

More than one in five employees globally already experience symptoms of burnout, according to the McKinsey report. As AI becomes embedded in more workflows, employers need to consider employees’ cognitive demands alongside productivity gains.

Employee stress and burnout are not just workplace issues.  They can affect mental and physical health, contribute to absenteeism, and increase demands on healthcare resources.

Technology’s efficiencies mean less if employees are too overwhelmed or exhausted to benefit. 

The goal shouldn’t simply be to help employees do more. It should be to help them work in ways that are sustainable while continuing to think, learn, connect, and contribute.​​​​​​

>>Take Action: Where is AI changing workflows? Are the efficiencies creating breathing room for higher-value work, or simply allowing more work to fill the day? Are you addressing the sources of stress and cognitive overload or just the productivity gains?

Protect What Makes Us Human

There are plenty of tasks I’m happy to hand over to technology. Scheduling. Routine administrative work. Repetitive processes that consume time without requiring much thought.

But communication? Mentoring? Critical thinking? Judgment? Creative problem-solving? Those are the human capabilities that build trust, drive performance, and deserve a different conversation.

This isn’t an argument against AI. Quite the opposite. To use AI well, employees need to know when to question an answer. When context or empathy matters. When a conversation is better than a prompt. And when the fastest answer isn’t necessarily the best one. Technology can make it easier for employees to navigate benefits and access care, but it should not replace the human connection, empathy, and clinical judgment essential to good health decisions.​​​​​​

>>Take Action: Talk with employees about what AI should do and what should remain human. As you evaluate technology-enabled benefits and healthcare solutions, ask where human support is important and available. 

Connect Brain Health to Whole Health

There is another reason this conversation belongs with employers and benefits leaders: Brain health does not exist separately from overall health.

McKinsey points to connections between brain health and metabolic, cardiovascular, social, and emotional health. Factors such as stress, sleep, and community engagement can influence both brain health and workplace performance.

That makes brain capital bigger than an AI conversation. It belongs in discussions about employee well-being, benefits, workplace culture, job design, and leadership. It also raises an important question: Are we looking at these health needs individually, or are we connecting the dots? An employee managing stress may also be struggling with sleep or a chronic condition. Addressing one concern without considering the others can mean missing an opportunity to support better overall health.

AI is not going away. Employers should be thinking seriously about how to use it. But technology is only half of this equation. The other half is sitting at the desk, working on the shop floor, talking with the customer, caring for the patient, managing the team, and making the judgment call. Protecting human intelligence means protecting the health of the people behind it. And we all have a supporting role in that.

As we invest in AI, let’s make sure we also invest in the human intelligence that makes it valuable. So, keep asking: How are we using AI? Then add one more question. What are we keeping human? Let's continue the conversation.