Is AI Actually Increasing Employee Workloads?

Researchers from the University of California Berkeley have found that AI is consistently increasing employees' workloads, rather than reducing it. 

The study, which surveyed a 200-person US technology company over the course of eight months, found that employees took on a broader scope of work than they previously would have outsourced, worked longer hours without being asked to and managed more tasks at once. 

Employees reported feeling more pressure to maintain these new levels of productivity as a higher output became normalised in the company – despite the tools being put in place to reduce workplace pressure. 

Rising concerns about AI 

This report comes as employee anxieties around AI are rising, with a study from Acas reporting that one in four UK workers fear they will lose their jobs due to AI. 

These concerns are not fully unfounded – at the beginning of February, human capital management platform Workday announced it was cutting around 2% of its workforce to better prioritise AI. 

The company previously cut around 8.5% of its workforce for similar reasons, with former CEO Carl Eschenbach saying of the redundancies: “We have so much opportunity ahead of us, especially with the potential of AI, and we have a strong foundation to build upon.”

Alex Karp, CEO of Palantir, also believes AI is going to significantly change ways of working.

At the 2026 World Economic Forum in Davos, Alex shared that he thinks AI is going to “destroy humanities jobs”, as he believes those skills will become “hard to market”. 

AI increases in workplace productivity 

Many companies appear to be more focused on how AI can best integrate with their existing workforce rather than turning to redundancies, however. 

A 2025 survey conducted by Forbes found that 68% of Chief Human Resource Officers have created a strategy focused on human-AI collaboration. Of those surveyed, 94% predicted that less than 5% of jobs will be eliminated across 2026 and 2027. 

David Solomon, CEO of Goldman Sachs, agrees. 

In an appearance on the Goldman Sachs Exchanges podcast, he shared that he believes jobs are not at significant risk due to AI, as workforces have continuously adapted to new technologies. 

He said: “Technology has been disrupting jobs, changing the way people work, destroying jobs and forcing us as a vibrant economy to create new jobs for decades.”

Mark Dixon, CEO of International Workplace Group, also echoes the findings from the University of California research, saying in conversation with Fortune: “AI will speed up companies’ development, so there’ll be more work, it’ll just be different work.”

When asked about the potential of a four day work week, he said: “Everyone’s having to control their labour costs because all costs have gone up so much, and you can’t get any more money from customers, so therefore you have to get more out of people.”

Developing an AI practice

As the report finds, the drive to get more out of people may be having a negative effect on employees. 

The research finds that, as employees' workloads increase following an initial surge of productivity, employees may begin to overly rely on AI, which leads to lower quality outputs due to increased pressures. 

To combat this, the report recommends companies develop an AI practice –  a set of intentional routines around AI usage to provide structure around how and when the technology should be used. 

As organisations develop this practice, the report suggests companies consider implementing intentional pauses before key decision making, developing focus windows where employees are undisturbed and do not feel the need to multitask and building time for human connection. 

Combined, the report says these strategies can improve thoughtful decision making and lead to a higher quality output.