AI fear of missing out (AI FOMO): Desire without action under social pressure

Fear of missing out (FOMO) is known to drive engagement. But does this apply to AI FOMO, the fear of falling behind with artificial intelligence (AI)? This commentary argues that it does not. Many people feel this fear intensely yet still do not act. Unlike social media FOMO, where fear is quickly discharged through participation, AI FOMO produces desire without action, a paralysis rooted in the asymmetry between perceiving AI as indispensable (high response efficacy) and feeling incapable of mastering it (low self-efficacy). When this tension goes unresolved, it may be redirected toward human–human relations, appearing as envy of AI-proficient peers and as biased attribution that discounts others’ accomplishments as merely “AI-driven.” These dynamics are not only individual. The asymmetry is also shaped by structural disparities in training, time, resources, and support, and by sociotechnical imaginaries that frame adoption as urgent and inevitable. As AI competence becomes a symbolic marker of merit, non-adoption risks being read solely as individual failure, obscuring the unequal conditions that also shape it. Understanding AI FOMO as a distinct emotional and sociotechnical condition suggests how technological change compounds inequality without requiring widespread adoption, and how FOMO, unaccompanied by the capacity to act, deepens divisions rather than bridges them.