A growing number of employees are reporting mental exhaustion linked to heavy use of artificial intelligence tools, with researchers now referring to the condition as “AI brain fry,” according to a new study by Harvard University.
The research surveyed more than 1,400 full-time workers in the United States who are employed at large companies. The goal was to understand how frequently people use AI in their daily work and how it affects their mental focus and decision-making.
About 14 percent of those surveyed said they experienced a noticeable “mental fog” after extended interactions with AI systems. Participants described symptoms such as difficulty concentrating, slower thinking, headaches and trouble making decisions after spending long periods working with AI programs.
Researchers said the findings were significant enough for them to introduce the term “AI brain fry,” which refers to mental fatigue caused by intensive use of artificial intelligence tools.
The issue is becoming more visible as businesses increasingly ask employees to develop and supervise AI agents. These automated systems are designed to perform tasks with minimal human supervision, but workers often need to manage and review their outputs.
According to the study, the promise that AI would free up time for more meaningful work is not always being realised. Instead, many employees report spending their time juggling several digital tools and constantly switching between them.
“Employees find themselves toggling between more tools,” the study said. Rather than reducing workloads, multitasking and monitoring different systems can become central to the job.
The researchers warned that this type of cognitive strain could lead to higher rates of mistakes, decision fatigue and even increased intentions among workers to leave their jobs.
Concerns about mental fatigue from AI have also appeared on social media, where some users say the constant need to monitor AI-generated work can be exhausting. One AI company founder wrote online that he finishes each day feeling drained, not because of the work itself but because of the effort required to manage automated systems.
The study also examined which types of AI-related work are the most mentally demanding. Oversight tasks, where employees monitor or check the output of AI systems, were identified as the most stressful.
Workers responsible for supervising AI outputs reported about 12 percent more mental fatigue than those who did not perform this role. Researchers attributed this to information overload, a situation where employees feel overwhelmed by the volume of data and tasks they must process.
Employees also said AI tools sometimes increase workloads by forcing them to track results across multiple systems within the same timeframe.
The study found a noticeable drop in productivity when workers used more than three AI tools at the same time. Participants who reported experiencing “AI brain fry” were also found to make 39 percent more major mistakes than colleagues who did not report the same symptoms.
Workers in marketing, operations, engineering, finance and information technology were among those most likely to report the effects of AI-related mental fatigue.
Researchers said artificial intelligence can still reduce burnout when it is used to handle routine or repetitive tasks. They stressed the importance of distinguishing between AI applications that ease workloads and those that may unintentionally increase cognitive pressure on employees.
