Will it lead to employee burnout?

When ChatGPT arrives in late 2022, PR agency founder Anurag Garg said his team of 11 people were eager to quickly incorporate the technology into their workflows to help businesses stay ahead of competitors. I did.

Garg encouraged employees to use AI language tools for a plethora of day-to-day tasks at the agency, including coming up with story ideas for clients, pitching to the media, and transcribing notes from meetings and interviews.

But instead of increasing team productivity, it created stress and tension.

Staff had to create ChatGPT summaries and prompts, double-check their output for inaccuracies, and there were so many inaccuracies that the task actually took longer. reported that it is.

And each time the platform was updated, we had to learn its new features, which also took extra time.

“There were too many distractions. Teams complained that tasks were taking twice as long because they expected the team to use AI tools,” runs Everest PR says Garg, who splits his time between the US and India.

The whole purpose of bringing AI into a company was to simplify people’s workflows, but in reality, it ended up giving everyone more work to do, leading to stress and burnout. ”

As a business leader, Garg also began to feel overwhelmed by the ever-increasing number of AI tools being released and felt the need to keep up with each new tool. Not only did he use ChatGPT as did his team, he also used Zapier to track team tasks and Perplexity to supplement client research.

“Although the market is flooded with AI tools, no single tool can solve multiple problems. As a result, multiple AI tools need to be constantly monitored to perform a task, and There was confusion. It was hard to keep track of which tools were doing what, and I started getting completely frustrated,” says Garg.

“The market is flooded with AI tools, so if you invest in a particular app today, there will be a better one next week, although it requires a continuous learning curve to stay relevant.” , which I found to be difficult to manage and lead to burnout.”

Garg has reversed his mandate that the team should use AI in all their work and is now using AI primarily for research purposes, and everyone is much happier.

“It was a learning phase for us. We started using less AI tools, so the work became more manageable. We went back to doing everything directly with the team, and the team became more connected. We feel more involved in our work. It’s much better,” Garg said.

The stress Garg and his team experienced using AI tools at work is reflected in a recent study.

A survey of 2,500 knowledge workers in the US, UK, Australia, and Canada by freelancer platform Upwork found that 96% of top executives expect the use of AI tools to improve productivity levels across their companies. and 81% admit that demand for AI tools is increasing. Employees in the past year.

However, 77% of employees surveyed said that AI tools actually reduce their productivity and increase their workload. Additionally, the survey found that 47% of employees using AI do not know how to achieve the productivity gains their employers expect.

As a result, 61% of people believe that using AI in the workplace increases the likelihood of burnout, a separate survey of 1,150 Americans conducted by resume writing company Resume Now found. As mentioned above, the percentage of children under the age of 25 rises to 87%.

Resume Now’s research also highlights that 43% of people feel that AI will have a negative impact on their work-life balance.

Regardless of whether the technology is based on AI or not, research shows that many employees already feel overwhelmed.

Further research from work management platform Asana highlights the impact of adopting more work-based apps.

A survey of 9,615 knowledge workers in Australia, France, Germany, Japan, the UK and the US found that of those who use between 6 and 15 different apps at work, 15% miss messages and notifications. I found out that the answer is yes. Number of tools.

23% of people who use 16 or more apps say constantly having to switch between apps makes them less efficient and less focused.

Kathy Holmes, a business professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, commented on the study: “Using multiple apps takes additional time to learn and switch between apps. We are sensitive to wasted time, so this loss of time is painful.”

Leah Steele, a lawyer-turned-coach who now specializes in helping legal professionals overcome burnout, has seen the introduction of AI-based productivity tools help her company reduce workload demands. Many people come to her because they feel a growing burden. It’s a familiar experience for her after her previous role saw her client caseload increase from 50 to 250 by implementing a new technology platform.

“The biggest thing I see is a constant competing desire to do more with less, but companies often find that the systems and technologies they have in place are not working for them. It doesn’t really take into account whether or not it’s contributing to the problem,” Bristol says. Based on Ms. Steele.

“Everything is moving so fast. It’s a constant battle to stay on top of things in order to develop expertise in such cutting-edge areas.”

Steele added that the burnout that lawyers are currently experiencing is due not only to the increased workload facilitated by technology and AI tools, but also to its ripple effects.

“When we think about burnout, it’s not just the amount of work we’re doing, but how we feel about that work and what we get out of it,” Steele says. says.

“I feel stressed that what I wanted to do was interact personally with my clients and make a difference, but now I am being placed in an environment with a lot of volume and not enough control.” Maybe.”

Steele added: “You may be stressed out by the risk of losing your job or the fear of being replaced because your job has become technology-driven and you no longer enjoy it.”

The Law Society of England and Wales acknowledges that lawyers need better support from law firm leaders to make the most of new technologies such as AI.

“AI and new technologies can make legal work more efficient by automating routine tasks, but they can create more work for lawyers, not less,” said Richard Atkinson, president of the firm. states.

“Learning how to use these tools takes time, and lawyers often have to undergo training and adapt their work processes. Many technologies were not originally designed for the legal field; It can make the transition more difficult.”

Alicia Navarro is the founder and CEO of Flown, an online platform and community that helps people focus on “deep work,” or tasks that require sustained concentration. She agrees that AI tools are emerging like an “avalanche,” but says they need to be used correctly.

“It takes a tremendous amount of filtering and learning before these tools start to become productive elements in our lives.”

But she argues that AI can be of great help to small and medium-sized businesses with limited resources.

“It’s incredibly powerful for startups to be able to do more, or for companies to be able to pay more in dividends or pay their teams more.”