‘The Downside To Using AI for All Those Boring Tasks at Work’ - Slashdot

Roger Kirkness, CEO of 14-person software startup Convictional, noticed that after AI took the scut work off his team’s plates, their days became consumed by intensive thinking, and they were mentally exhausted and unproductive by Friday. The company transitioned to a four-day workweek; the same amount of work gets done, Kirkness says. The underlying problem, according to Boston College economist and sociologist Juliet Schor, is that businesses tend to simply reallocate the time AI saves. Workers who once mentally downshifted for tasks like data entry are now expected to maintain intense focus through longer stretches of data analysis.

This is an interesting problem. I see little discussion of it elsewhere. What will happen? Will we continue to work the same hours doing more, or will we be working less doing the same.

Knowledge work is highly cerebral in nature. That requires down time, in order to continue working at a high level.