AI expands workplace roles and increases workload: Study reveals

If you imagine AI reduces workload, you might need to reconsider.

In a recent eight-month exploration of how generative AI influenced work patterns at a US tech firm with around 200 staff, UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business analysts discovered three primary ways employee workloads increased.

Staff found themselves multitasking more, embracing additional duties, and often working beyond standard hours, sometimes voluntarily.

Aruna Ranganathan, a management professor, alongside Xingqi Maggie Ye, a Ph.D. candidate at Haas School of Business, shared insights in Harvard Business Review, noting once AI tools were at play, employees began stepping into each other's roles, utilising AI during meetings, and refining each other's vibe coding projects.

"Workers described this as 'just trying things' with the AI, but these experiments accumulated into a meaningful widening of job scope," wrote Ranganathan and Ye. "In fact, workers increasingly absorbed work that might previously have justified additional help or head count."

The researchers noted that many employees also provide AI with prompts before stepping away for meetings or lunch, allowing AI to continue working autonomously.

"These tasks often didn't feel like extra work, yet eventually led to a day with less natural breaks and more continuous involvement," Ranganathan and Ye commented.

In an October 2025 dialogue with Rowan Cheung, host of Rowan's Notes interview series, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, divulged how AI has possibly intensified his workload.

"It seems as though I can't generate ideas quickly enough anymore," Altman admitted to Cheung.

"I genuinely have difficulty predicting its implications," Altman added. "I believe it will result in quicker outcomes and allow for more experimentation to identify superior ideas swiftly."