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Employees' anxiety about losing their jobs to artificial intelligence tools might be misplaced, but employers still have to recognise this fear is a legitimate barrier to successful AI adoption, experts warn HR leaders.

Speaking as part of a panel on AI technology and leadership, hosted this week by workflow platform ServiceNow, the company's global vice chair Nick Tzitzon said leaders must be part of the AI change process, rather than reside above it, to ease their employees' fears.

"When technology gives you the opportunity to do things that we've not historically been able to do, it becomes a question of risk and reward," Tzitzon said.

"The opportunity to concentrate and focus people on the potential reward is the leadership obligation of this generation."

This potential reward, however, might be curbed by the "gross insecurity that exists in organisations", including at senior levels where people in the later stages of successful careers are "afraid to admit what they don't know"...