What does it take to drive AI adoption across one of the most complex government agencies in the world?
AIX’s Charles Epstein sits down with Alicia Miller, Senior Advisor at the IRS and leader of AI literacy and adoption for a workforce of 70,000+ employees. Alicia shares her unconventional journey from organizational psychology and behavioral science into the heart of government tech transformation—and what it really takes to scale AI in a mission-critical environment.
From shifting mindsets to building trust in new tools, this conversation unpacks the human side of AI at scale.
The statements included in this podcast represent the opinions of the guest speaker and are not intended to represent official policies or views of the IRS.
AIX Files is published in association with HR.com and is free to AIX on HR.com members. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a subscriber.
Catalyst Poll
In our podcast, Alicia mentioned the caliber of people drawn to public sector work, noting the talent, intelligence, and commitment of her colleagues. Many AIX members work in the public sector, know people who work there, and all of us have had many encounters with public sector employees (beyond those employed by our local DMV!). While it is unfair to generalize, in your experience, what is the biggest misconception about public vs. private sector work?
And not now for something completely different.
I don’t know about you, but when a letter arrives with an IRS return address, my pulse rate quickens. Sweat accumulates on my upper lip. And I have to take a deep breath before tentatively ripping the envelope open - with one finger poised to speed dial our accountant. Which begs the question:
AI in People Decisions: What the Research Actually Says
AI tools are now embedded in hiring, performance management, and workforce
planning across most organizations. The promise is a familiar one: more consistent, less biased, and more defensible than human judgment alone. What the research actually shows is more nuanced and worth a closer look.
In our next AI4HR live virtual session, AIX’s Charles Epstein will be joined by featured presenter Alice Dawson, M.A., an associate research scientist in Neurology and the Brain Health Institute at Rutgers University’s Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, who will lead the half-hour session. Participants will leave with the ability to:
Identify workflow conditions that increase the risk of unreliable or socially influenced AI outputs
Recognize the assumptions embedded in vendor claims about objectivity and bias reduction
Formulate targeted questions to evaluate AI tools during procurement or vendor review
Identify practical steps for strengthening internal AI governance in people decision contexts
When: May 27, at 11:00 AM - 11:30 AM ET. Click here to sign up. (AI4HR Live! is a virtual series produced by HR.com that showcases practical AI adoption strategies.)
Last month’s session, Surveys & Assessments in the Workplace: Using AI to Interpret Open-Ended Responses, was led by Dr. Jennifer Miller, PhD, co-founder and managing partner of Millan, a management consulting firm focused on using data for people-centered, smarter decision-making. It is available online.
AI Gone Rogue
Offbeat tales of AI being unintentionally funny (i.e., woefully wrong), bizarre, creepy, (amusingly) scary, and/or just plain scary.
In Dreams Begin Responsibilities: Anthropic Gives Claude Agents the Ability to ‘Dream’ for Self-Improvement
The anthropomorphization of AI technology will continue until morale improves, so you'd better get used to it. This week Anthropic released a new feature in its Claude Managed Agents product that allows your agents to "dream," which is considered to be a self-improvement technique in AI circles apparently.
"Dreaming is a scheduled process that reviews your agent sessions and memory stores, extracts patterns, and curates memories so your agents improve over time," Anthropic said in a blog post. The idea is to improve the performance of agents executing multiple tasks over a long period of time or orchestrating teams of agents, and it's also a clever way to rebrand "hallucinations."
Source: Runtime
AIX-emplary Links of the Week
The week’s most interesting and timely articles on AI and its impacts on employee wellbeing and readiness.
The workplace wellbeing challenge hiding inside the AI boom. Employees save 1–7 hours weekly with AI but lose 40% of those gains correcting outputs, while 68% of individual contributors feel anxious or overwhelmed (vs. 74% of C-suite executives excited). Frequent AI use causes “AI brain fry,” boosting mental fatigue by 12% and mental effort by 14% for those managing multiple agents, underscoring the need for brain-health investments to sustain performance. Source: On Wellbeing
The AI Readiness Gap Inside Your Company. Organizations rush AI adoption but overlook workforce skills in digital literacy, critical thinking, and governance, leading to employee fear of job loss, stalled initiatives, and misalignment. Higher corporate AI readiness correlates with stronger job creation and growth, but talent capability remains the main bottleneck. Source: Training Magazine
AI promised to reduce the load. What happened? AI delivers productivity gains but drives burnout: 88% of high-AI users report burnout and are twice as likely to quit, with “AI brain fry” raising quit intent to 34% (vs. 25% without). Only 12% of workers feel confident in AI’s contextual understanding, creating a major confidence gap and mental load. Source: HR Executive
Transforming benefits with AI: A new era of human-centric solutions. AI automates benefits administration and claims while delivering personalized health recommendations and predictive analytics for wellness trends. This shifts HR focus to strategic work, simplifies employee interactions, and proactively supports wellbeing and organizational resilience. Source: Employee Benefit News
Superagency in the workplace: Empowering people to unlock AI’s full potential at work. Nearly all companies invest in AI, yet only 1% feel mature; the biggest scaling barrier is leadership, not employees, who are more AI-ready than leaders realize. The report stresses building AI-native skills on the job to accelerate adoption while maintaining trust and safety. Source: McKinsey & Company
3 Ways AI in Employee Well-Being is Changing the Game. In 2026, AI shifts from pure efficiency to empathy-driven wellbeing tools that strengthen human connection, trust, and engagement rather than replace it. Employers who treat AI as a strategic advantage for personalized support will see measurable improvements in employee experience. Source: FitOn Health
AI can make employees happy — if leaders use it properly: Employee engagement (via Quartz news coverage). Falling employee engagement can be reversed if leaders deploy AI to create meaning and connection, not just efficiency gains. Proper integration helps counter dehumanization risks and supports wellbeing amid rapid workplace change. Source: Quartz
Nearly 1 in 4 Employees Say AI Is Already Hurting Their Mental Health. 24% of employees report AI already harming mental health; 67% say it has raised productivity expectations (causing stress for 64%), and 69% expect AI-driven layoffs within three years. Senior managers feel the pressure most acutely. Source: LinkedIn Pulse
AI and the Future of Work: Who benefits and who falls behind. AI adoption is reducing headcount needs across sectors while unevenly affecting workforce readiness and career starts. Early-career workers show mixed views on job security, highlighting the need for targeted skills frameworks to ensure equitable outcomes.
Source: Digital Education Council
About
Developed in partnership with HR.com, AIX is a multimedia knowledge and engagement platform for experts, leaders, and HR peers to exchange experiences and seek guidance on cultivating mentally resilient, emotionally intelligent, and professionally adaptable workforces in an AI-augmented world. AI will increasingly touch every corner of the employee experience—from hiring to training, from task management to team dynamics. Whether its impact is positive or harmful depends largely on how HR prepares for it. The AIX platform (The AIX Files, The AIX Factor podcast, and the AIXonHR.com community) will play an important role in promoting employee well-being, workplace culture, and organisational readiness, the critical success factors in the age of AI.
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