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Artificial intelligence has entered our lives rather abruptly. In a short space of time, it has moved from news and technological discussions into the everyday anxiety of many people. And it is no longer discussed merely as a tool, but as something that can change the way we work, learn, organise our lives and, ultimately, perceive our place in the world.
This explains why the reaction it provokes is not only curiosity or interest, but also fear. A fear that, especially in Greece, is increasingly expressed in a very specific form: what if we are left behind. Behind the developments, behind the market, behind the skills demanded by the new era, behind even a version of ourselves that seems more adaptable, faster, more “ready”.
This fear is not unfounded. According to the Future of Jobs Report 2025, by 2030, 22% of current jobs globally are expected to be structurally affected: 170 million new jobs are projected to be created and 92 million displaced. In other words, the picture is not exclusively catastrophic. However, it is deeply disruptive. And in such a disruptive era, people worry not only about their profession, but also about whether they themselves will continue to have a place within it.
We don't just fear losing our jobs
Often, when we talk about artificial intelligence in Greece, the conversation quickly turns to productivity, education or the need to acquire new skills. All these things are right, but they are not enough to describe the mental burden of the experience.
Because work is not only income, it is also identity. It is a way for someone to answer, even silently, the question «who am I?». It is a field where we invest value, self-esteem, a sense of usefulness and continuity. Therefore, when artificial intelligence begins to shift the ground beneath professions, skills and roles, it undermines not only practical stability, but also a sense of inner cohesion.
This is why many people do not just describe anxiety. They are experiencing a deeper sense of disorientation. As if they are struggling to figure out exactly where they stand in a world that is racing ahead. The relevant literature is already quite clear: artificial intelligence can be experienced, beyond a technical or professional challenge, as identity threat in the workplace.
Why the fear of being left behind is becoming more intense in Greece
Artificial intelligence is not arriving in Greece in a social vacuum. It is not meeting a society that is rested, with a deep sense of stability and confidence in the future. It is arriving on top of already burdened mental and social terrain: years of financial pressure, professional insecurity, continuous readjustments and a pervasive sense that just to keep up with the basics, you have to run non-stop.
This is crucial for psychology. Because a person who is already tired from constant adaptation finds it much harder to experience a new technological change as neutral “progress”. They are much more likely to experience it as yet another demand. As just another message that they must learn faster, respond faster, and change faster, otherwise they risk being left behind.
This experience is not purely theoretical. Research based on Greek data from the years of the economic crisis showed that unemployment was linked to worse self-reported health and poorer mental health. This matters for our discussion today, because it reminds us that in Greece, major changes in the workplace are never just technical matters. They leave a significant psychological footprint.
The fear of being left behind also conceals grief
If we examine our lived experience a little more closely, we will see that behind the fear, there is often something else: grief.
Not necessarily grief for a specific loss that has already occurred, but grief for something that seems to be slipping away. For an old sense of stability. For the idea that if I invest in a path, that path will have some longevity. For the belief that the world changes, but not so fast that there is no longer any room for who I was until yesterday.
Artificial intelligence touches upon precisely this point. It does not only breed a fear of replacement. It also creates a fear of internal disconnection. The feeling that the rules of the game might change so drastically that you will need to redefine from scratch not only what you do, but also who you are.
This is where emotions appear that are often all bundled together under the word «anxiety»: sadness, frustration, shame, anger, a sense of inadequacy, a deeper void. And perhaps this is the hardest part of our era. Not that things are changing, but that they are changing so fast that the human psyche cannot always keep up with making sense of them.
The fluidity of the times and the identity crisis
Here, Zygmunt Bauman's thinking remains invaluable. In Liquid Modernity and Liquid Times, he describes a world in which constants are weakened, roles become more temporary, and uncertainty ceases to be the exception and becomes the condition. People are called upon not merely to adapt, but to constantly reconstruct themselves.
This also sheds very clear light on why artificial intelligence causes such intense psychological turmoil. It is not arriving in a stable era. It is arriving to accelerate an already fluid reality. So the fear of being left behind is not only about technological developments. It is also about the difficulty of maintaining a coherent identity in an era that constantly shifts its reference points.
Simply put: people are not only afraid that they will not keep up with the world. They are afraid that, in trying to keep up with it, they might lose themselves.
What can psychologically protect a person
The first step is to speak more honestly about our lived experience. Not simply «I am afraid of artificial intelligence», but «I am afraid that my place in the world is changing». This phrasing is more accurate. And usually more comforting, because it puts words to what was previously only a raw knot in the stomach.
The second step is to separate value from utility. In times of rapid change like this, it is easy to equate human worth with immediate productivity, relevance or technological competence. This is a trap. A person does not lose their worth just because the world is changing faster than they can bear.
The third step is to recognise that some aspects of this experience genuinely require mourning. Certain certainties are coming to an end. Certain identities are being destabilised. Some old inner supports are no longer enough. If space is not given to this grief, people often become trapped in either hyperarousal or numbness.
And the fourth step is to rebuild identity on deeper foundations. Not just on titles and roles, but on values, judgement, character, relational skills, the capacity to learn, and resilience. Artificial intelligence will change a lot. However, it cannot define human meaning on its own.
The real issue
The core question is not just whether Greece will adapt to the speeds of artificial intelligence. It is also whether people in Greece will be able to navigate this transition without falling apart psychologically.
The challenge, therefore, is not to make everything stable again. That is not going to happen. The challenge is to find ways to change without losing ourselves. To adapt without self-negation. To learn the new without our sense of who we are collapsing every single time.
References
Bauman, Z. (2000). Liquid modernity. Polity Press.
Bauman, Z. (2007). Liquid times: Living in an age of uncertainty. Polity Press. Drydakis, N. (2015). The effect of unemployment on self-reported health and mental health in Greece from 2008 to 2013: A longitudinal study before and during the financial crisis. Social Science & Medicine, 128, 43–51.
Mirbabaie, M., Brünker, F., Möllmann Frick, N. R. J., Wahl, S., & Stieglitz, S. (2022). The rise of artificial intelligence – understanding the AI identity threat at the workplace. Electronic Markets, 32, 73–99.
Selenko, E., Bankins, S., Shoss, M. K., Warburton, J., & Restubog, S. L. D. (2022). Artificial intelligence and the future of work: A functional-identity perspective. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 31(3), 272–279.
World Economic Forum. (2025). Future of jobs report 2025. World Economic Forum.
Article Written & Edited by: Filippos Gkekis, Psychologist & Psychotherapist
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