Employee mental health is suffering from rapid AI transformation

AI’s promise of increased productivity might be a double-edged sword…

Many workers are experiencing “AI brain fry,” or mental fatigue from using and overseeing AI tools. And it’s no wonder why: Organizational change can take a toll on workers, and right now, there’s no greater organizational change than that caused by AI.

Based on the numbers, AI has been negatively impacting employees’ mental health: 55% of workers surveyed by mental health platform Headspace reported sacrificing sleep to meet performance goals, while 51% said they’d emotionally checked out and 45% resented senior leaders during these times of change. Seventy percent of the more than 700 workers surveyed said their companies have adopted new AI tools in recent months.

“[AI] is a significant fuel that is stoking that fire of chronic [mental] strain in a way that we haven’t seen a new technology or a new innovation in the workforce really put that strain on people before,” Jenna Glover, organizational psychologist and Headspace’s chief clinical officer, told HR Brew.

Str(AI)ning employees’ mental health. It’s a hard time to be a human. Burnout is rising, well-being is declining, and healthcare costs are skyrocketing. Adding AI to these issues can exacerbate stress, Glover said.

“People are not meant to have that kind of strain on them at all times,” she said. “It’s incredibly unhealthy to be under that level of strain, even though people are just like, ‘This is my new normal.’”

Even if AI tools deliver on the long-term promise of making work easier, Glover said people leaders need to consider the short-term ramifications on employees’ mental health.

“The level of instability that people are experiencing…doesn’t look like it’s going away,” she said. ​​“We have to start preparing our employees and inoculating them for, ‘How do you deal with chronic stress, and uncertainty, and still show up and be productive at work and maintain your health?’”

Where HR comes in. A focus on mental health and well-being strategies should be ongoing since stress is “no longer episodic, it is a chronic state,” Glover said. She recommended HR pros provide resilience training, during which employees can learn strategies for emotion regulation, cognitive flexibility, and attention control.

“How do we start having benefits that are more upstream, that are proactive, that are building these skillsets which are important skills to operate in this new workforce?” she said. “Those resources have to be embedded into the workflow and into the infrastructure.”

Some strategies could include “Focus Fridays,” where there are no recurring or mandatory meetings on Fridays as a cognitive “release valve,” Glover said. And as more companies incorporate AI into performance reviews, she said people leaders can consider adding resiliency or wellness goals. This can help managers and employees track how they’re taking care of themselves.

“People need rest. Even in manufacturing, they don’t keep machines running at 100%, 24 hours a day. They actually power down machines to work at 50% or shut them off completely,” Glover said. “If we’re doing that for machines, we should do that for people.”