What are the 5 Stages of AI Grief?
How people react when they see the potential of AI for the first time.
What do you know about the Kübler-Ross change curve? It's related to the stages of grief that Kübler-Ross observed in patients who had terminal illness (shock/denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance)... now the stages of grief don't necessarily follow prescribed order but folks took these observations and applied them to business and noticed that when massive changes happen people tend to go through these same sorts of stages.
I think we see the same thing with what is happening with AI across various industries...
Shock -- 🤯 "Wait what? Noooo... I didn't realize AI was this good..."
Denial -- 😏 "Okay, okay, AI will never do xyz though", "AI still isn't good enough to do xyz"
Frustration/Anger -- 😠 "Okay maybe it CAN do xyz but AI SHOULDN'T do xyz", "Ban/boycott AI!"
Depression -- 😔 "I don't know what I'm going to do if my job becomes irrelevant because of AI"
Experimentation -- 🤔 "Okay... I guess I better learn how to use this..."
Decision -- 🧐 "AI can be used to help people work more efficiently and effectively, if used correctly, it's a great tool to have in your tool belt."
Integration -- 😁 "I use AI on a daily basis to help me work more effectively"
I've seen this cycle play out with almost every single person that I've demoed AI tools to and within every single industry that generative AI has moved into. People get stuck at different stages. Honestly, I often feel myself going through these same stages of grief as I see how AI is beginning to transform software development. I go back and forth between being excited about the capabilities that AI offers and a sort of sadness for the growing democratization of skills that have been regarded as my super powers... It's important to move towards acceptance and integration if we want to remain productive. The first step might be to name the thing we are going through and once we name the stage we are in it may be easier to move forward.
AI companion to this post: The 5 Stages of AI Grief GPT
More on the Kubler-Ross Change Curve:
https://www.ekrfoundation.org/5-stages-of-grief/change-curve/