AI overuse could spark "brain fry," new research finds
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From the researchers who brought you "workslop" comes another new term for an AI downside: "brain fry," defined as mental fatigue from excessive use or oversight of AI tools beyond one's cognitive capacity.
Why it matters: The rapid adoption of AI in the workplace — and the aggressive push from employers to use the technology — is frying the minds of those who use it most intensely.
Where it stands: The mental strain associated with AI carries "significant costs," researchers from Boston Consulting Group and University of California, Riverside write in an article just published in the Harvard Business Review.
- Those include "increased employee errors, decision fatigue and intention to quit."
Friction point: Researchers found that workers most at risk for brain fry are using multiple tools or overseeing multiple AI agents — the early adopters and those most excited about the technology.
- "One of the reasons we did this work is because we saw this happening to people who were perceived as really high performers," said Julie Bedard, a partner at BCG.
By the numbers: They surveyed 1,488 full-time U.S.-based workers about their AI use.
- 14% of those using AI said "yes" when asked if they had ever experienced "mental fatigue that results from excessive use of, interaction with, and/or oversight of AI tools beyond one's cognitive capacity."
- That's "brain fry."
- "Participants described a 'buzzing' feeling or a mental fog with difficulty focusing, slower decision-making and headaches."
"I had been back and forth with AI, reframing ideas, synthesizing data, forming and organizing the flow of pillars and work…I couldn't even comprehend if what I had created even made sense…just couldn't do anything else and had to revisit the next day when I could think," a finance director is quoted as saying in the piece.
Between the lines: 14% doesn't seem like a big number, but it's a "warning sign," the report's authors say.
- More employers are making AI use mandatory — with some measuring use in performance reviews. That could be encouraging overuse.
What to watch: Brain fry is different from burnout — a state of chronic workplace stress that leads to exhaustion, negative feelings about work and decreased effectiveness, Bedard and coauthor Gabriella Kellerman, who did the earlier workslop report, tell Axios.
- If AI is used to replace routine or repetitive tasks, it can reduce the phenomenon.
- Employers need to be careful about introducing AI into workplaces — there are ways to integrate it without leading to brain fry.
The bottom line: Just because workers can keep iterating with AI, they write, "does not mean they should."
