{"id":803674,"date":"2026-07-15T14:55:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T14:55:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/803674\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T14:55:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T14:55:12","slug":"ai-fatigue-leaves-workers-struggling-to-keep-up-researchers-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/803674\/","title":{"rendered":"‘AI fatigue’ leaves workers struggling to keep up, researchers say"},"content":{"rendered":"

Write an email in seconds. Draft a job description in minutes. Summarize an hour-long meeting before leaving the boardroom.<\/p>\n

Artificial intelligence promises to make work faster than ever, but for many employees, keeping up with a constant stream of new tools, changing expectations and AI-assisted workflows is becoming exhausting \u2014 a phenomenon researchers refer to as “AI fatigue” or “AI brain fry.”<\/p>\n

\u201cIn any organization, I think everybody\u2019s dealing with some degree of fatigue. These past six years have been nothing but change,\u201d said Sam Jenkins, managing partner at Punchcard Systems, an Edmonton-based digital innovation consultancy that helps organizations adopt AI.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe unfortunate thing is the change is not going to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

On July 8<\/a>, global tech giant Meta announced its plans to build a large AI data centre in Sturgeon County, Alta. The $13-billion investment is the company\u2019s first such project in Canada, and it comes amid a wave of proposals<\/a> for large-scale data centres in the country, specifically in Alberta.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jenkins said it\u2019s \u201creally interesting\u201d for Alberta to be chosen for this development, and that he sees this opportunity as \u201cessential from an economic development perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is another indicator that AI is probably here to stay,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Given Punchcard Systems’ work helping organizations adopt AI, Jenkins sees the issue first-hand.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe anxiety is real for many folks. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s something we should be dismissing. Both for this particular project, but also for AI in general,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since the wide public release of generative AI technology in 2022, organizations have rapidly integrated AI into everyday work. Canada\u2019s National Artificial Intelligence Strategy<\/a> aims to expand more, with a goal to increase Canada\u2019s business adoption of AI by 48 per cent by 2034.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This target of greater efficiency comes with a growing sense of uncertainty.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs AI going to take my job? I think that will always be part of the AI discussion,\u201d Jenkins said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AJosh Bourdage teaches psychology at the University of Calgary and has an interest in industrial and organizational psychology. (Submitted by Josh Bourdage)<\/p>\n

Josh Bourdage, a University of Calgary professor who studies industrial and organizational psychology, said much of the fatigue stems from perceived job insecurity.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is scary to think about being replaced with AI,\u201d Bourdage said. \u201cIt creates some hesitancy, and I think some of that is justifiable hesitancy.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Increased cognitive load leads to disengagement<\/p>\n

Beyond fears of job loss, Bourdage said AI challenges people\u2019s sense of competence and psychological safety \u2014 two factors closely tied to workplace well-being.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople start to have this deep sense of fatigue with the increased use of AI. It\u2019s comprised of this increased cognitive load,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The cognitive load he describes comes from constantly learning systems, reviewing AI-generated work and adapting to changing expectations about how and when AI should be used.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you pair that with mixed or changing expectations about the use of AI \u2026 you start to disengage with AI, not want to use it for tasks,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The result, according to Bourdage, can include declining motivation, difficulty concentrating during technology-heavy work and an overall sense of exhaustion.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Modern offices are veering more and more toward digital services and AI tools. (Radio-Canada)<\/p>\n

The rate of AI expansion is outpacing current research methods, leaving much to be discovered about the state of AI fatigue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Bourdage believes organizations have an important role to play in reducing that burden.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOrganizations and individuals developing AI competency and AI literacy will be very helpful in terms of minimizing that burden,\u201d Bourdage said.<\/p>\n

‘It can feel like cutting a corner’<\/p>\n

This sentiment is echoed by leaders across the workforce who embrace AI while remaining healthily skeptical over its functions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are over-indexing on efficiency,\u201d said Nadia Ciani, president and co-founder of Scale Staffing, a Toronto-based staffing partner.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAs organizations, we have moved away from thinking about the culture we want to create \u2026 and what experience we want our employees to have.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ciani sees a place for AI in the workplace, but believes organizations need to be more intentional about how they use it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAI has taught us how to measure speed,\u201d she said. \u201cWe certainly know we can do things faster. The question we need to ask ourselves is also, \u2018Are we doing it better?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

She sees that tension most clearly in recruitment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAs much as it\u2019s part of speeding up some of the recruiting process, we also believe there\u2019s a very important place for human interaction and human judgement,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe promise for technology was better hiring. But too often, what\u2019s really happening is we are settling for faster rejection.\u201d<\/p>\n

Emma Hackett, recruitment and employee experience co-ordinator at Big Rock Brewery in Calgary, also relies on AI for hiring processes and administrative work, but admits using it can come with unexpected guilt.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt can feel like cutting a corner,\u201d she said. \u201cAm I good at my job or do I just have a really great tool helping me?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bourdage said the individual differences in the willingness to use AI are what breeds guilt and fatigue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are certain people who are simply more comfortable using AI than others,\u201d Bourdage said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOrganizations are often implementing AI without making sure that they are ready for AI.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Write an email in seconds. Draft a job description in minutes. Summarize an hour-long meeting before leaving the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":803675,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[62,276,277,49,48,61],"class_list":["post-803674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=803674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803674\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/803675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=803674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=803674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=803674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}