The post AI Promised to Save Time—Instead It’s Created a New Kind of Burnout appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.

In brief Research published on the Harvard Business Review found that AI is accelerating work, not reducing it. Productivity gains are morphing into burnout and workload creep. The real shift isn’t job loss—it’s work intensification and reorganization. A new study published in Harvard Business Review this week confirmed what many workers already suspected: AI tools don’t reduce work, they intensify it. The study cited data from UC-Berkeley and Yale, collected during eight months of embedded research at a 200-person tech company, where employees voluntarily adopted AI tools. The results showed distinct patterns of work intensification that quietly snowballed into what researchers call “workload creep.”  First came task expansion. Product managers began writing code. Researchers took on engineering work. Roles that once came with clear boundaries blurred as workers handled jobs that previously sat outside their remit. AI made that shift feel feasible. “You had thought that maybe, ‘oh, because you could be more productive with AI, then you save some time, you can work less,’” one engineer told researchers. “But then, really, you don’t work less. You just work the same amount or even more.” This created a ripple effect. Engineers suddenly found themselves reviewing, correcting, and coaching colleagues who were, as one participant perfectly described it, vibe-coding. The person who automated part of their job just created more work for someone else. Second came blurred boundaries. AI’s conversational interface made starting work feel effortless—no blank page paralysis, no intimidating learning curve. So workers started sending “quick last prompts” before leaving their desks, letting AI handle chores while they stepped away. Many even used AI prompts during their free time, to the point that AI use for work in non-work hours accumulated into hours and days with fewer natural pauses. Third came a surge in multitasking. Employees were expected…

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Filed under: News - @ February 9, 2026 10:28 pm