Imagine publishing a comprehensive paper on the future of work in the spring of 2022, only for ChatGPT to be released a few months later, and to completely change the picture you tried to describe. Logically, this should render the paper irrelevant very quickly. This was precisely the situation that Gagné and colleagues found themselves in when they published their influential review on the psychology of future work.
However, the piece did not merely survive; if anything, it became even more relevant. Gagné and colleagues built their argument on self-determination theory, a well-established framework in the psychology of motivation. Its central claim is that motivation and well-being increase or decrease with the satisfaction of three basic psychological needs: competence (the sense of mastering what one does), autonomy (the sense of acting from one’s own volition) and relatedness (the sense of genuine connection to others).
When work supports these needs, people engage with it and thrive. When work frustrates these needs, motivation and well-being decline. This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution Receive 12 digital issues and online access to articles Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout Gagné, M. et al.
Understanding and shaping the future of work with self-determination theory. Psychol. 1, 378–392 (2022) Article PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar Ryan, R. Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being.
Psychol. 55, 68–78 (2000) Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland Digital Society Initiative, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland The author declares no competing interests. The psychology of generative AI written before it existed. Nat Rev Psychol (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44159-026-00623-5 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44159-026-00623-5
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