HBR: AI Didn't Lighten the Workload. It Made the Workday Heavier.

Berkeley researchers Aruna Ranganathan and Xingqi Maggie Ye found that AI doesn't hand workers time back. It speeds up the pace, widens the scope, and stretches work into more hours of the day — a recipe for workload creep, cognitive fatigue, and burnout. The productivity surge fades into lower-quality work and turnover. If you run a business or a book of clients, the lesson is blunt: AI is leverage, not relief. Decide what the freed-up minutes are for — prospecting, client conversations, actual rest — or the work will decide for you. Originally published by Aruna Ranganathan and Xingqi Maggie Ye at Harvard Business Review. Read the full piece here: https://hbr.org/2026/02/ai-doesnt-reduce-work-it-intensifies-it