Is this because they have less human interaction or is it because using these tools (that potentially cost coworkers their jobs) they see a future that could also cost them their job etc.

It just doesn’t add up, why would working with AI tools opposed to any other software tool cause more drinking, it’s not like they are that fundamentally different. It’s still a tool.

Not specific to AI, some of the people I work with make me prone to drinking as well

It’s not even relevant. The study “surveying 794 employees in all. Over the course of surveys conducted in spring 2021 and spring 2022”. So think about the AI and other tools that people had already been exposed to at the time the survey was done a couple years ago. The “AI” they’re talking about then is nothing like what we’re experiencing now. (e.g., Copilot)