An article in today's Wall Street Journal by Ray Smith conforms so completely to my own work experience over the past week (I'm currently feeling fatigued from cognitive overload) that I pass on this Google Gemini summary of its main points:
An article "AI Makes Workloads Worse, Not Better" by Ray A. Smith in the 3/12/26 Wall Street Journal highlights a counterintuitive trend: rather than freeing up time for high-level creative tasks, artificial intelligence is actually increasing the speed, density, and complexity of work. Data from ActivTrak, which analyzed 164,000 workers, shows that AI users saw a 100% increase in time spent on messaging and a 94% increase in the use of business-management tools. Conversely, "focused work" time—the deep concentration needed for strategy and complex problem-solving—dropped by 9% for AI users.
This phenomenon is described as "work creep," where the efficiency gained from AI is immediately repurposed into additional tasks. Instead of working fewer hours, as some tech leaders predicted, employees are finding that their "appetite" for work remains unbounded. Experts note that because AI makes tasks feel easier and more accessible, it creates a momentum that pushes workers to take on broader scopes of work and more simultaneous projects.
While these shifts may initially boost productivity, researchers warn they are not without cost. The intensification of work can lead to cognitive overload, burnout, and a long-term decline in work quality. As AI agents prompt users to consider more variables and layers for every project, the result is often a "deeper dig" into existing work rather than a lighter schedule, suggesting that the dream of a shorter workweek remains elusive for most AI adopters.
