Employers, Workers, and the New World of Work

With the rise of advanced technologies, we have entered a new era of revolutionizing businesses, business models, and the workforce. As employers optimistically embrace artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and other technologies, they must also focus on their most valuable asset – their employees. 

How are employers are supporting employees who are needed to implement and operationalize the technologies? How well aligned are they with employees’ experience and needs during this time of rapid change?

Employers, Workers, and the New World of Work, a collaboration between nonprofit Transamerica Institute and its Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies (TCRS), provides an in-depth view of employers’ organizational concerns, business practices, and health, welfare, and retirement benefit offerings. This report compares employer perceptions versus worker realities, and it also breaks down survey findings by company size.

Key findings include:

• Disconnects in Workplace Progress and Productivity: Almost eight in 10 employers (78%) are optimistic about their company’s future and more than half (52%) indicate that advanced technologies are positively impacting their overall business and day-to-day operations. In comparison, only 56% of workers feel optimistic about their future and 49% of workers feel exhausted and burned out. 
• AI Impacts on Jobs: Eight in 10 employers (82%) are currently using or planning to use AI to augment their human workforce and, among them, 89% cite workforce implications ranging from job transformation (67%) and new job creation (50%) to job elimination (36%). Just 39% of employers believe their company's employees are worried that AI and robotics will make their job skills no longer needed, compared with 44% of workers who are worried. 
• Employee Benefits Gap: A wide gap exists between the benefits valued by workers and the actual benefits offered by employers, namely health insurance (workers: 95%, employers: 58%), a 401(k) or similar plan (workers: 91%, employers: 61%), dental insurance (workers: 88%, employers: 37%), life insurance (workers: 86%, employers: 36%), and vision insurance (workers: 85%, employers: 34%). Other important benefits with significant offering gaps include long-term care insurance and critical illness insurance, among others. 

It also discusses best practices and outlines recommendations for employers from training and development, mental health resources, flexible work arrangements, caregiving support, phased retirement options, to benefit offerings.

This employer insights report is based on a survey of 1,900 for-profit U.S. employers and a survey of more than 6,100 workers of for-profit companies, both conducted in late 2025.