Harvard study reveals GenAI tools raise productivity and increase human workloads

A comprehensive Harvard Business Review study on the impact of generative AI on work habits finds that, rather than reducing workloads, the technology consistently leads to work intensification. Research conducted over eight months at a US-based technology company found that employees used the time saved by AI to work faster, expand their job scopes, and extend their working hours. This shift occurred voluntarily, as workers found that AI made taking on additional responsibilities feel more accessible and intrinsically rewarding.

The study identified three primary forms of intensification. Firstly, task expansion saw employees using AI to bridge knowledge gaps, with designers and product managers performing engineering tasks they would previously have avoided. This created a secondary burden for specialists, such as engineers, who had to spend more time coaching colleagues and reviewing AI-assisted work. Secondly, boundaries between professional and personal life blurred. The ease of initiating tasks led workers to use AI during lunches, meetings, and breaks, removing natural pauses from the day and causing work to spill into evenings. Finally, the technology encouraged constant multitasking, with employees managing several parallel threads of work simultaneously.

Researchers warned that while this productivity surge appears beneficial to leaders, it often masks a dangerous "workload creep" that leads to cognitive fatigue, burnout, and diminished decision-making quality. As AI accelerates tasks, it raises expectations for speed, creating a self-reinforcing cycle where employees feel busier than they did before adopting the technology.

To counter these risks, the study recommends that organisations develop an "AI practice" consisting of intentional norms and standards. These include implementing "intentional pauses" to assess work quality and alignment, "sequencing" to prevent constant interruptions from AI-generated outputs, and "human grounding" to protect social interaction and collaborative creativity. The report concludes that without active management and structured routines, the natural tendency of AI-integrated work is toward unsustainable intensity rather than the promised reduction in effort.

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