The retention risk AI misses

When I was growing up in Turkey, the hallmark of a successful career was staying with one company for years, even decades. Today, that idea seems almost quaint. The Great Resignation may be receding into the rearview mirror, but workers are still job-hopping, especially younger ones. The average Gen Z tenure is 1.1 years, according to Randstad. Compounding the issue, newer hires are more likely to leave: employees with two years or less at a company are 38% more likely to quit within the next year. Companies must “earn” retention continuously.

Some startups have come up with clever strategies for boosting retention, like offering employees early liquidity. AI tools can also help leaders gauge flight risks by looking at tenure, compensation gaps, and sentiment trends. But those don’t fully capture the things that most so-called job hoppers are after: growth and meaning.

Employees don’t stay because the metrics make sense. They stay because the work feels purposeful, the growth feels real, and the environment feels human. 

Here’s how leaders protect what AI can’t measure.

Don’t outsource understanding to AI

When it comes to gathering feedback and gauging employee sentiment, AI tools can automate the tedious, manual parts, leaving human employees to analyze the information. But there’s another side of the coin that it can’t replace: human empathy and context-based judgment.

Someone can report feeling a certain way while actually, consciously or not, feeling something else entirely. It’s the difference between emailing an employee already spread too thin about a new assignment and receiving a “Sure thing!” in response, versus hearing that same reply in person and noticing the sigh, the pause, the slight drop in their shoulders.

People can sense what others are feeling beyond what is said—through body language, broader context, and subtle signals that AI still struggles to interpret.

For leaders, the takeaway is clear: don’t outsource personal understanding to AI. Use it to collect data, but also make time for real conversations to make your own observations and interpretations.

Involve employees in community-building activities

Even if retention numbers are better than five years ago, employees may still feel uninvested in the workplace—what Gallup calls “The Great Detachment.”

In my experience leading Jotform, I’ve learned that creating a sense of connection and belonging—fundamental human needs—makes employees feel more personally invested in the company and engaged in their day-to-day work. Community is what enables that kind of workplace.

We build it through people-focused initiatives like cycling days in San Francisco and regular group lunches in Ankara. Just as importantly, we keep the figurative suggestion box open. Instead of top-down events, give employees small budgets to create and run their own communities around shared interests—fitness groups, book clubs, language exchanges, gaming nights, etc. Importantly, to protect employees’ lives outside of work, activities should always be optional. 

When employees feel involved in the community-building process, the benefits compound.

Create a tailored progress plan for each employee

I have my own company, but I’ve also worked for others, and I consider that experience invaluable as a leader. I know what it feels like to be unsure whether anyone is invested in your progress. The faster the pace of a company, the easier it is to feel adrift. In today’s startup climate—where AI is accelerating work while often raising expectations in tandem—the pace is especially intense.

Leaders have a responsibility to take an active role in employee growth—and to ensure it’s personalized. Performance metrics, no matter how precise, don’t capture the full picture of how people are progressing or whether they’re moving in the right direction—toward goals that feel personally meaningful, not just climbing the ladder.

One way to address this is to create a tailored progress plan for each employee, mapping short- and long-term goals to individual interests. Leaders should revisit these plans at least quarterly, offering candid, thoughtful feedback. Ask whether employees enjoy their work, which projects excite them, and what leaves them energized rather than drained. Explore adjacent areas they may want to grow into. At Jotform, we encourage entry-level employees to explore their interests—even if it means raising their hand for projects outside their immediate focus. At best, they discover a new passion; at worst, they bring a fresh perspective to a team they might not otherwise work with. We try to actively create opportunities for cross-pollination of ideas.

While I encourage leaders and managers to leverage AI to better understand employee performance, it should complement, not replace, human judgment. Even with perfect data, what’s on paper doesn’t always reflect reality. Build a roadmap for sustaining engagement around uniquely human capabilities like empathy and context-driven judgment—qualities that AI can’t replicate.

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