Despite technology’s promises of reducing workload, it looks like using AI to get work done could be taking a toll on your mental health.
The latest research showing this serious trend: a survey of nearly 1,500 full-time U.S. workers, which found that employees who consistently use AI to boost their productivity beyond its normal potential are becoming fatigued, as researchers at Boston Consulting Group and the University of California, Riverside described in a study. new report In Harvard Business Review.
The researchers even gave this phenomenon a suggestive name: “AI brain fry.”
“One of the reasons we did this work is that we saw this happening to people who were considered really high performers,” said Julie Bedard, partner at BCG and author of the report. told Axios.
In the study, 14 percent of workers said they had experienced “mental fatigue that results from excessive use of, interaction with, and/or monitoring of AI tools beyond one’s cognitive capacity.” The percentages were highest in marketing, software development, human resources, finance and IT roles.
Several employees described Brain Fry’s symptoms using similar language. They reported a feeling of “buzzing” or mental “fog”. Other symptoms include headaches and slow decision-making abilities.
AI companies promise that AI can increase productivity. Whether this is true or not, technology is enabling workers to multitask with speeds and workloads far beyond their regular limits, which appears to be part of the problem with respect to its cognitive effects.
The study identified information overload and constant task switching as some of the main drivers of brain fry. In particular, the most difficult aspect of using AI to automate work was supervision, or the need to constantly monitor AI devices, with some overseeing multiple AI agents at the same time. The report found that higher levels of surveillance were associated with 12 percent higher levels of mental fatigue among employees.
A senior engineering manager recounted, “I had one tool that helped me weigh technical decisions, another that produced drafts and summaries, and I was bouncing between them, double-checking every little thing.” hbr Report. “But instead of moving forward faster, my brain just started feeling disorganized. Not physically tired, just… congested. It felt like I had a dozen browser tabs open in my mind, all fighting for attention.”
The senior manager added, “My thinking wasn’t broken, it was just noisy – like mental stability.” “What ultimately got me out of it was the realization that I was working harder to manage the tools than to actually solve the problem.”
The work also found a relationship between self-reported AI brain fry and an employee’s intention to leave their company. Intention to quit increased by nearly 10 percent among those who reported AI brain fry.
Brain fry is also bad news for an employer’s all-important bottom line. Workers who experienced brain fry saw a 33 percent increase in decision-making fatigue. For billion-dollar companies, poor decision making or paralysis can cost them millions of dollars each year.
These findings add to a growing body of research and anecdotes describing the harms caused by the use of AI in the workplace. Another report in hbr Last month it was found that AI was actually speeding up work rather than reducing workload. Amid growing discussion on the topic, more engineers have come forward to criticize the use of AI in the workplace, with many admitting that their own AI use is leading them to burnout.
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