Burnout reveals up as feeling continually exhausted, emotionally checked out from work, and struggling to get issues completed successfully.
Delmaine Donson | E+ | Getty Photos
Burnout is a rising concern throughout industries, however synthetic intelligence is quietly altering the sport.
Acknowledged by the World Well being Group as an “occupational phenomenon,” burnout is greater than only a private problem — it is a enterprise one.
In line with a 2025 research in The American Journal of Preventive Drugs, burnout prices U.S. firms between $4,000 and $21,000 per worker annually — or as much as $5 million yearly for a median U.S. firm with 1,000 staff.
ChatGPT generally is a phenomenal pondering companion. It isn’t simply an upskill — it is a reinvention. If persons are keen to do the work, it may very well be the most important alternative of our time.
Caroline Stokes
Management strategist and writer
To fight burnout, many firms are turning to AI instruments like ChatGPT and Copilot. These automate repetitive duties, summarize data, and help with content material creation and venture administration. A world research by the College of Melbourne and KPMG Worldwide of greater than 32,000 staff from 47 nations discovered that 58% of staff deliberately use AI at work, with one-third utilizing it weekly or each day.
But many staff nonetheless lose beneficial time, spending 2.6 hours a day, or 13 hours every week — round a 3rd of the typical work week — on duties that AI might simply deal with, in response to a survey by GoTo and analysis agency Office Intelligence of two,500 staff and IT leaders across the globe.
Headspace’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Jenna Glover described AI as a “very useful companion.”
“It may be an excellent assistant by way of lightening, what has been, traditionally, duties that simply tackle plenty of cognitive load,” she instructed CNBC Make It.
How is AI serving to burnout?
Workplaces utilizing AI instruments noticed a 25% drop in emotional exhaustion, in response to a February 2025 survey of 200 IT professionals. AI programs flagged 30% of contributors as prone to burnout — based mostly on elements like lengthy hours and low engagement — permitting for early intervention methods to be put in place.
“AI can cut back stress by giving staff personalised nudges — from suggesting quick breaks to rebalancing workloads throughout a staff,” Francis Hellyer, CEO of AI-powered international journey and experiences platform, Tickadoo, instructed CNBC Make It.
As an alternative of lightening the load, it is really simply creating room for extra to be put in your plate.
Jenna Glover
Chief Medical Officer at Headspace
Headspace’s Glover, in the meantime, mentioned AI can assist common workload check-ins, flag when duties turn into unbalanced, and ship pulse surveys to assemble well timed suggestions — all beneficial instruments for sustaining staff wellbeing.
For Caroline Stokes, management strategist and writer, ChatGPT generally is a “phenomenal pondering companion.”
“It isn’t simply an upskill — it is a reinvention. If persons are keen to do the work, it may very well be the most important alternative of our time,” she mentioned.
To fight burnout, many firms are turning to AI instruments like ChatGPT and Copilot.
Sopa Photos | Lightrocket | Getty Photos
Staff who use AI to ease their workload are typically extra productive, really feel extra in management throughout operational, emotional, and cognitive areas, and assist their leaders — finally driving higher outcomes, Stokes mentioned.
“The earlier a CEO can do the work to grasp how an built-in AI system goes to not solely assist their very own psychological well being, their very own burnout, however their folks’s burnout and psychological well being, it will not be this ugly elephant within the room anymore,” she added.
Some firms are already leveraging the expertise for psychological well being. Headspace’s AI companion Ebb has been rolled out throughout 2,000 enterprises in an effort to assist with office stress, behavior constructing, and nervousness administration.
However can AI even be a part of the issue?
It is clear that AI is reworking the office — however some query whether or not it is at all times for the higher, arguing that it may very well be pushing some staff towards burnout, somewhat than serving to them keep away from it.
A latest survey discovered that 45% of U.S. staff who use AI ceaselessly usually tend to undergo excessive burnout, whereas 38% of rare customers of the expertise might undergo the identical destiny, and 35% of non-users. The info comes from Quantum Office, one of many largest worker expertise databases within the U.S., based mostly on insights from over 700,000 folks throughout over 8,000 organizations.
Utilizing AI instruments all through a full workday can really feel the identical as spending 9 hours on the gymnasium, warned Stokes — emphasizing the necessity to give the mind time to relaxation, reset, and get well.
That is as soon as workers have discovered learn how to use it. AI literacy is one other problem. Not all staff are aware of learn how to use these instruments successfully, including strain on prime of present workloads.
“It is extremely arduous once we’re utilizing an AI device to maintain going, as a result of it is like an encyclopaedia of every little thing, ask it something, and to have it course of something, consider something, and also you’re simply happening the final word rabbit gap. Our brains nonetheless have to relaxation,” Stokes mentioned.
She warns that firms counting on AI to exchange headcount could also be unintentionally fueling burnout.
Some staff utilizing AI to spice up productiveness are undertaking duties sooner — however they’re additionally taking over extra work. “As an alternative of lightening the load, it is really simply creating room for extra to be put in your plate,” Glover mentioned.
