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Наталя ХандусенкоAI Eng
11 March 2026, 17:51
2026-03-11
Study shows: using too many AI tools at once can reduce productivity and cause “brain burnout”
Researchers at Harvard Business Review have uncovered a troubling phenomenon among workers who use multiple AI agents simultaneously. A significant proportion of people report feeling “brain fog,” headaches, and slowed decision-making—a condition the authors call “brain burnout.” The percentage of workers who experience this condition varies by industry. IT professionals are among those with the highest rates.
Researchers at Harvard Business Review have uncovered a troubling phenomenon among workers who use multiple AI agents simultaneously. A significant proportion of people report feeling “brain fog,” headaches, and slowed decision-making—a condition the authors call “brain burnout.” The percentage of workers who experience this condition varies by industry. IT professionals are among those with the highest rates.
As part of the Harvard Business Review study, 1,488 full-time employees of large companies in the United States from various industries were surveyed, Business Insider writes .
The study found that artificial intelligence tools can improve productivity, but only to a certain extent.
“I had one tool that helped me weigh up technical decisions, another that produced drafts and summaries, and I was constantly switching between them, checking every little thing,” one senior engineering manager told the study authors. “But instead of moving faster, my brain started to feel cluttered. Not physically tired, but… overwhelmed.”
Workers who switch from one to two AI tools simultaneously experience “significant productivity gains.” However, when switching from two to three tools, this increase becomes less noticeable, and after three, it begins to decline altogether, clearly demonstrating that multitasking has its limits.
"We're not saying we shouldn't manage multiple agents," Matthew Kropp, one of the study's lead authors and a managing director and senior partner at Boston Consulting Group, told Business Insider. "That's the reality. That's how we're going to work in a lot of workplaces. People will be managing agents. I think it's important that we recognize that this has that impact and manage it accordingly."
Kropp noted that he and his co-authors sought to distinguish between general burnout and the specific AI-related fatigue that some workers are beginning to experience as “agent-like” AI transforms their work and daily routines.
“This is a very specific effect, because in order to effectively control an agent, you actually need to make a lot of cognitive effort,” he said. “It’s not a mechanical job. If I’m a software engineer, I’m instructing an AI to design and write code for me, and what it produces really matters—the output has to be of high quality.”
The high stress level of managing a single agent only increases with each additional one — until employees reach a “boiling point.” That’s why the authors argue that businesses should be careful when developing policies for using AI, including including time for breaks.
"If I'm becoming 50 times more productive, maybe I should be 20 times more productive, but have better mental health and not want to quit," Kropp said.
Steve Yegge, a veteran software engineer, recently proposed a 3-hour limit for engineers using AI agents in programming.
The study also found that when AI is used to replace “routine or repetitive tasks,” burnout levels decrease, even if mental fatigue among workers does not disappear.
According to the study, 14% of employees surveyed said they were experiencing “AI brain burnout,” but this percentage varies significantly by industry:
employees in marketing areas — 25.9%;
personnel management — 19.3%;
operating activities — 17.9%;
software development — 17.8%;
legal and compliance specialists — 6%.
Kropp noted that these differences are partly due to the pace of adoption among industries overall.
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