The use of artificial intelligence (AI) is now mandatory at several technology companies, with one CEO quoted as saying that failure to use AI can result in employee dismissal. Its use in the writing, academic research and creative arts industries has already caused thousands of job losses. But what exactly is the impact of using AI on everyday work?
According to a Harvard Business Review study of a company with 200 employees over eight months, AI has had a positive impact in the early stages. Productivity increased as employees used AI to complete various tasks faster.
Some employees were willing to work overtime without being asked because they were excited that AI would allow them to do more daily tasks that had previously felt impossible. They were also willing to take on more responsibility than their original scope of work.
However, this increase in productivity was not sustainable. Once the excitement of experimenting with AI wore off, employees found their workload had increased and they began to feel stressed from managing everything that suddenly became their responsibility.
This increased workload can in turn lead to cognitive fatigue, exhaustion and poor decision-making. The productivity boost that was initially enjoyed has turned into issues of lower quality of work, employee turnover and a host of other problems.
The fact is that humans are still not machines and the use of AI only increases productivity for a short period of time. Working at high intensity cannot be done continuously.
