Featuring:

VP and Principal Analyst, J. P. Gownder and Senior Analyst, Jonathan Roberts

Show Notes:

Is AI adding to or alleviating employee burnout? It’s a simple question with a complex and multifaceted answer. In some ways, AI is alleviating burnout, while in other ways, it’s increasing it. In this episode, VP and Principal Analyst J. P. Gownder and Senior Analyst Jonathan Roberts look at the multiple aspects of this issue.

The episode starts with a look at where employee burnout is today. Roberts puts it bluntly: It’s bad. Forrester data says about half of the global workforce is somewhere on the burnout spectrum and 19% are in the “red zone,” which is defined by high burnout and low engagement. Gownder lays out some of the main factors contributing to employee burnout today, most notably anxiety about job security.

And one of the big factors contributing to anxiety around job security is AI. Gownder says 59% of workers fear they’ll lose their job to AI in the next 10 years and 86% feel someone else will lose their job to AI. “The record at this point is rather thin on AI taking over [routine] tasks in a way that increases our happiness,” he says. “I think the bigger issue is AI as a cause of burnout, not a remedy … AI isn’t going to be the panacea that’s going to smooth over all the other problems if you have them in your workforce.” Roberts then agrees with the assessment that AI is more of a cause of burnout than a solution.

The conversation then turns to the impact of AI on specific functions and industries where burnout is particularly high and how AI may help workers in those fields. The healthcare sector, for example, has seen very high rates of burnout, so Gownder says healthcare leaders have been working to find ways that AI could streamline workflows. “You must retain the human doctor in the loop, but that doctor can get a whole lot of help from an AI-infused application,” he says. Other industries discussed include cybersecurity and the government sector, where burnout is extremely high.

The episode closes with each of the analysts providing their longer-term outlook on whether AI will someday be seen as the tool that solved the burnout crisis or the tool that sent workers over the edge, so be sure to stick around for those predictions.