The leading factor contributing to burnout, according to studies, is work overload. Consistently high workloads, long hours, and unrealistic expectations place immense pressure on employees, leading to feelings of being overwhelmed and unable to keep up. This constant strain on resources, both mental and physical, leaves people with little room for creativity or innovation. Enter Generative AI (GenAI), a technology that can challenge this problem.
GenAI has the capacity to automate repetitive and time-consuming tasks that typically lead to employee burnout. Whether it’s drafting reports, summarizing long documents, responding to basic customer inquiries, or managing schedules, GenAI can take over these low-value tasks. By doing so, it frees up professionals to focus on more meaningful and fulfilling work such as strategy, problem-solving, and creativity. Activities that not only improve job satisfaction but also reduce the mental strain that leads to burnout.
Education is one field where burnouts are particularly apparent. Teachers often face overwhelming workloads, spending hours on lesson planning, grading, and administrative duties. According to recent research, teachers experience burnout due to the demanding nature of these non-teaching tasks (Hashem et al., 2023). GenAI tools like ChatGPT have been shown to relieve these pressures by assisting with personalized lesson plans, generating instructional materials, and even grading assignments. By automating these repetitive processes, teachers can focus more on student interaction and improving the learning experience, which significantly reduces their stress levels.
For example, AI can generate multiple versions of lesson plans tailored to different student needs, freeing up teachers’ time for more meaningful educational activities. Research shows that this not only helps educators manage their workload more effectively but also improves overall teaching quality and student outcomes (Hashem et al., 2023).
Employers across industries should consider integrating GenAI into their daily operations. Automating routine tasks not only protects employees from burnout but also enhances productivity and innovation. As GenAI technology continues to evolve, its potential to alleviate burnout and revolutionize the workplace could make workload-induced burnout a rarity rather than the norm.
Hashem, Reem & Ali, Nagla & Zein, Farah & Fidalgo, Patricia & Abu Khurma, Othman. (2023). AI to the rescue: Exploring the potential of ChatGPT as a teacher ally for workload relief and burnout prevention. Research and Practice in Technology Enhanced Learning. 19. 023. 10.58459/rptel.2024.19023.
This post is particularly insightful by highlighting the relations between AI and burnout, one of the main challenges of the modern workplace. I aggree that automating repetitive tasks can significantly reduce mental stress and let employees free to engage in more fulfilling activities. The education example is particularly hopeful since I myself have a cousing who is starting his professor career and mentioned such difficulties.
To deepen the discussion, I think it’s important to explore the potential side effects of relying heavily on GenAI. For example, if using AI can reduce the risks of burnout, can it also cause over dependency in such tools while degradating basic skills? If a professor relies too much on AI to develop homeworks, will it impact negatively its creativity to do it themselves?
Additionally, as AI gets more space on daily tasks, it is important to teach employees to perform in more management and strategic roles. Companies should continually invest in training to ensure that this transition happens and can fully leverage their new responsibilities.
Finally, while GenAI can alleviate task-related burnout, it might not address the roots of emotional issues, such as lack of recognition or support. AI should be used to both improve productivity and foster a supportive work environment.
This post sets the stage for an engaging discussion on how AI can shape the future of work and prevent burnout and opens the door for exploring relations between human efficiency and technological adoptions.
It’s so great you brought up such an important topic! The connection between burnout and work overload is so real, especially in today’s fast-paced work environments. During my internship last year, I found that GenAI was a lifesaver when things started to feel overwhelming. At one point, my full-time job was overlapping with university classes and my thesis, and I was close to burnout. Letting GenAI handle time-consuming, low-value tasks gave me the time to focus on the more creative and strategic parts of my job, and also keep up with my studies.
However, after about a month of relying on AI for these routine tasks, I realized I was losing my ability to do them on my own. For example, I used to be really good at writing clear, concise emails, but after letting AI handle it for a while, my skills noticeably declined. The same thing happened with university – when I started using ChatGPT to help me with some simple calculations, I was skipping valuable practice. When ChatGPT was down, I found myself actually struggling with tasks that used to be easy.
I think your post is a great jump-off point for discussing the balance between using GenAI to prevent burnout without becoming overly reliant and losing essential skills.
I find this post particularly interesting as I’m unsure whether I agree or disagree with certain parts.
Take the example of replacing scheduling and summarizing work. I think I would feel more liberated if I scheduled my work myself than if a computer did it for me, having the freedom to decide when and where I do what I plan to do. Also In the context of summarizing a personal project I have poured my heart and soul into, I am more inclined to do it myself than let a computer do it, that way I feel like I can do my work justice.
However, I think it is clear that GenAI can help replace work we don’t like. But I find it important to ask how much control we will have over what will be replaced when this becomes a more prominent behaviour.
If firms approach replacing tasks to enable employees to do more fulfilling work, I think we can expect good things to happen. But what if menial boring work gets replaced with even more exhausting and creatively demanding work, all in the name of creating even more shareholder value? I’m not certain if this will necessarily be good for us, and I think it is important to consider how employee vs manager relationships will shape this integration of GenAI.
But I enjoyed the post because these are questions I do not have the answer to, and as I am writing this I realise that asking these questions to myself has value beyond just writing a comment for the participation grade. I can personally relate to the benefits as I regularly utilise GenAI to improve my efficiency, and I am strongly in favour towards its integration into education as I wrote an essay on AI and education last year. But as I wrote in my personal Blog, “AI-rtificial Dementia, How Technology Is Disrupting Our Memory and Brain Chemistry” there are numerous side effects of being too reliant on AI beyond what I mentioned above, such as specific categorical memory loss.
All in all, I think your post is both a great conversation starter and a very relevant topic in today’s world, and it opens up the dialogue of solving the issue of finding purpose and preventing/ or curing burnout.