A new study published in the Harvard Business Review shows that companies that rely on artificial intelligence technologies risk having exhausted workers. AI has made them more productive, but it has only made them more work.
A new study published in the Harvard Business Review shows that companies that rely on artificial intelligence technologies risk having exhausted workers. AI has made them more productive, but it has only made them more work.
Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, spent eight months at a technology company with 200 employees using AI tools, TechCrunch reports .
Studies have found that workers didn’t feel like they were getting more done because the tools made more possible. But as they were able to do these things, work began to take up lunch breaks and late nights. Employees’ to-do lists expanded, filling every hour that AI freed up, and continued to grow.
«You thought that maybe because you can be more productive with AI, you save time and you can work less. But in reality, you don’t work less. You just work the same amount or even more,» one programmer said.
Another IT professional at another tech company said that when his team switched to a fully AI-based work style, «expectations tripled, stress tripled, and actual productivity only increased by 10%.»
«It feels like management is putting a lot of pressure on everyone to prove that their investment in AI is worth it, and we all feel pressure trying to show them that, while actually having to work longer hours to do it,» he noted.
A separate study conducted last summer found that experienced developers using AI tools spent 19% more time completing tasks, believing they were working 20% faster.
And researchers at consulting firm Bain & Company found that the productivity gains from programming with AI are at best marginal, and at worst, artificial intelligence can even slow down human work.
