February 10, 2026
One more prompt, one more problem
AI Doesn't Reduce Work–It Intensifies It
Meet your new coworker: AI that never sleeps—and neither do you
TLDR: A Berkeley study of 200 tech workers says AI tools speed up work but make people juggle more, draining energy. Comments split between 'it's management's fault,' 'I'm addicted to one more prompt,' and 'agentic development is a time sink,' with calls for clear rules to prevent burnout.
Berkeley researchers just told the boss what you already feel: AI isn’t cutting the workload, it’s cranking the treadmill. In an HBR write-up of a study of 200 tech employees (April–December 2025), workers described a “new rhythm” of juggling: coding while AI drafts an alternative, spinning up multiple bots, and resurrecting old tasks because “hey, the AI can handle it.” It felt productive—until the brain fog hit from constant checking and context-switching.
The comments went full therapy circle. erelong insisted this “doesn’t have to be that way,” blaming pushy managers, while bilekas confessed the slot-machine temptation of “just one more prompt” on side projects—cue jokes about AI being the coworker who hands you espresso and new bugs at 2 a.m. fhd2 slammed “agentic development” (using AI helpers that act on their own) as a time sink, saying ideas that used to die quietly now eat hours before getting abandoned. Meanwhile, maininformer preached zen: “I prompt and sit there. Scrolling makes it worse,” earning memes about “mindful prompting.” And mrtksn dropped a shop-floor analogy: programming was the lathe; AI is the CNC that lets anyone spin parts fast—sometimes too fast.
HBR’s fix? Build an “AI practice”—clear rules so teams can spot real productivity versus burnout-fueled busywork. The crowd agrees: we need speed limits for the AI Autobahn.
Key Points
- •Berkeley Haas researchers reported initial HBR findings from a study (Apr–Dec 2025) of 200 employees at a U.S.-based technology company.
- •AI use encouraged parallel tasking (e.g., coding while AI generated alternatives, running multiple agents).
- •Workers felt AI as a “partner,” creating momentum but also frequent attention switching and output checking.
- •The dynamics increased cognitive load and the number of open tasks, making work feel like constant juggling.
- •HBR recommends organizations build an “AI practice” to structure AI use, prevent burnout, and distinguish sustainable productivity gains.