overworked workers AI agents and tools According to a recent Harvard Business Review study, people in the workplace are at increased risk of mental fatigue. In certain industries, more than 25% of employed professionals report increased mental strain due to their role in AI surveillance. However, these professionals also generally experience less burnout than their non-AI colleagues.
The phenomenon, which researchers are calling “AI brain fly,” is described as a “‘whirling’ sensation or mental fog” that causes headaches in study participants and makes it difficult to concentrate and make decisions. Individuals cited being overwhelmed by large amounts of information and frequent task switching as reasons for these feelings.
Individuals studied experienced more brain fatigue when AI agents were used to manage workloads that exceeded their cognitive abilities. As participants used AI to replace mundane and repetitive tasks, managing an ever-increasing number of tools led to increased mental fatigue.
Importantly, the study found that fewer people who used these AI agents reported workplace burnout.
Researchers predict this is because burnout tests assess mental and physical distress. In contrast, they report, acute mental fatigue “is caused by concentration of attention, working memory, and executive control beyond the limited capacity of these systems.”
Researchers say that when study participants use multiple AI tools in their workflows, these processes become taxed.
A Harvard study identifies several business costs for workers who suffer from AI brainflies. The most important consequence is that these people may end up making poor-quality decisions. ‘The workers of [the] “Those who supported AI Brain Fly experienced 33% more decision fatigue than those who did not support it,” the study reports. Workers who reported AI brain flies were also more likely to self-report both minor and major mistakes at work.
Another recent Harvard Business Review study similarly found that employees who use AI tools “work at a faster pace, take on a wider range of tasks, and work longer hours in a day,” but warned that “increased workloads can, in turn, lead to cognitive fatigue, burnout, and weakened decision-making.”
