Make AI Your Assistant, Not Your Task Master

We recently returned from the Future of Work Conference in Dallas, and if there was one topic that dominated the conversation, it was no surprise:

AI.

AI and productivity. AI and leadership. AI and learning. AI and the employee experience. How AI will change the jobs we do, the skills we need, and the way we work.

And for good reason.

AI is already transforming the workplace. It can help us brainstorm, research, write, organize, analyze, summarize, create, and accomplish in minutes what might once have taken hours.

Personally, I love it.

But as an ergonomist, I couldn't help thinking about something else as I listened to all the excitement about what AI can help us accomplish:

Just because we can do more, does that mean we always should?

When Efficiency Becomes More Work

Something strange can happen when we become more efficient.

The time we save doesn't always become free time.

It becomes room for another project. Another meeting. Another idea. Another deliverable. Another item on the to-do list.

AI can help us get through ten tasks in the time it once took to complete five. That's incredible.

But what happens when ten becomes the new five?

We may be eliminating some of the tedious work, but we aren't necessarily eliminating the cognitive load that comes with constantly thinking, deciding, switching, reviewing, responding, and creating.

In fact, AI can make it incredibly easy to keep going.

There's always one more prompt we can enter. One more version we can generate. One more idea we can explore. One more task we can squeeze into the day.

And suddenly, the technology designed to make our lives easier can become the thing encouraging us to do even more.

Your Brain Is Still Human

This is where the human side of the Future of Work becomes so important.

AI doesn't get mentally tired.

We do.

AI doesn't get stiff after sitting in front of a screen for three hours.

We do.

AI doesn't need lunch, a walk around the block, a conversation with another human being, or ten minutes to stare out the window and think about absolutely nothing.

We do.

And while technology is evolving at lightning speed, our bodies and brains haven't suddenly evolved along with it.

We still need movement.

We still need recovery.

We still need time to think.

We still need boundaries.

And yes, we still need ergonomics. In fact, now more than ever!

October Is Ergonomics Awareness Month

Which makes the timing of October's Ergonomics Awareness Month especially interesting this year.

Ergonomics has never simply been about having the right chair or adjusting your monitor.

At its core, ergonomics is about fitting work to us rather than forcing us to fit the work.

And today, "the work" is changing faster than perhaps ever before.

So maybe our definition of good ergonomics needs to expand along with it.

Yes, pay attention to your chair, desk, keyboard, monitor, and posture.

But also pay attention to your workload.

Pay attention to how many things you're juggling at once.

Pay attention to how often you're switching between tasks.

Pay attention to whether AI is actually giving you time back or simply helping you cram more work into the time you already have.

And pay attention to whether you're still giving your brain and body opportunities to recover.

AI can be one of the most powerful workplace tools we've ever had.

Use it.

Let it handle the tedious stuff.

Let it help you get unstuck.

Let it brainstorm with you, organize your thoughts, summarize the 47-page document you don't have time to read, or help you turn a blank page into a starting point.

Let it make you more creative.

Let it make you more efficient.

Let it help you with the lingering things on your to-do list.

But don't let all that newfound efficiency become permission to run yourself into the ground.

The goal shouldn't be to see how much more work we can squeeze out ourselves because AI made it possible.

The goal should be to use technology to help us do our best work, with a little more time, energy, creativity, and maybe even breathing room left at the end of the day.

Because for all the conversation about AI and the Future of Work, there's one thing worth remembering:

The future of work is still human.

And perhaps one of the smartest things we can do with AI is make sure we keep it that way.