Artificial intelligence is upending not just how people work, but how they relate to their jobs—their professional identity. A.I. uniquely impacts white-collar workers in a way no technologies have before.

In the past, automation technologies focused on automating portions of physical tasks performed by humans. The rise of robotics did just that, displacing low-skilled workers from the manufacturing process of goods like cars. The development of software, on the other hand, affected middle-skilled workers, by automating more complex tasks. A.I. is now coming for white-collar skills—decision-making and intellectual abilities—that up until recently, we thought were uniquely human.

The new frontier of generative A.I. encroaches even further than prior A.I. systems on the work done by white-collar workers. This is because, as Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella outlined in his recent company keynote, there are two layers that drive generative A.I.’s capabilities: First, an advanced reasoning engine that can be both pre-trained with general information and then re-trained on company-specific data to provide custom insights; and second, a natural language interface that makes English “the hottest new programming language.” The result is that generative A.I. can provide sophisticated insights, but also do so in an accessible way. That capability resembles the work of a high-level employee, upsetting the professional identity of white-collar workers.

Proactively addressing these professional identity concerns is vital for organizations because employees who feel their professional identities are threatened by A.I. are more resistant to its adoption, and less likely to use and derive value from it. This ultimately hurts the company overall. Our research shows that organizations with employees who personally get value out of A.I. are nearly six times more likely to reap significant financial benefits than organizations where employees don’t see the value of the technology.

There are a number of schools of thought on the elements that make up an individual’s unique sense of professional identity, and how it evolves over time. According to self-determination theory, there are three key components of professional identity: a sense of competence (importance of role and belief in one’s expertise), autonomy (level of discretion to make decisions), and belonging (connection to a wider group that generates meaningfulness). To address A.I. ’s impact on employees’ professional identity, executives will need to address each of these three elements.