AI threatens some roles, but experts say it could unlock a healthier working week

AI adoption is becoming more common across some UK workplaces, but new research suggests its biggest impact may not just be redundancies or productivity gains, it could help tackle burnout facing so many workers.

New research from Advanced Workplace Associates (AWA) shows that 10.9 hours per week could be freed up per worker using AI tools for admin based tasks. At the same time, OpenAI has recently suggested trialling a four-day working week as AI adoption accelerates and concerns grow around redundancies and the changing labour market.

While concerns continue around the future of some workplace roles, AI could also create an opportunity to redesign work in a healthier and more sustainable way, by allowing some sectors to benefit from ‘cognitive relief’.

Burnout levels remain high across the UK

Mental Health UK’s Burnout Report 2026 found that 91% of UK adults reported high or extreme levels of pressure or stress in the past year, while a high or increased workload remains the leading cause of stress for UK workers.

According to AWA’s Mental Workload Study, working memory can only handle four chunks of information at any one time, while mental workload can quickly escalate when multiple demands compete for attention.

The findings suggest burnout is not simply caused by long working hours, but by cognitive overload created by constant interruptions, digital demands and repetitive low-value tasks, not to mention the added pressures of everyday personal worries, including finances, constant reminders of world tensions, and poor health, for example.

Andrew Mawson, Founder of AWA, said:

“For years, organisations have measured workload almost entirely through time, hours worked, meetings attended and tasks completed. But the real issue in many modern workplaces is cognitive overload.

People are dealing with constant interruptions, emails, and competing demands that could be deployed on high value business tasks. This is as well as social media streams, domestic tensions, and other worries, all of which consume mental capacity. Our Mental Workload Study found that the brain has limited cognitive capacity, meaning employees can quickly become overloaded when they are constantly switching between tasks.

That is where AI could have a meaningful impact. If used properly, these tools can remove repetitive admin and routine tasks that consume mental energy, helping workers get through their ever increasing ‘to-do’ lists.

In fact, our latest study found that 45% of freed capacity converts to headcount reduction for routine admin, 20% for professional knowledge workers, 5% for physical roles. The remainder is absorbed as productivity gain, redeployed to new activities, or in high-burnout sectors, this could be returned to workers as cognitive relief.

The opportunity is not just about saving time. It is about freeing up cognitive capacity so people can focus on more thoughtful, creative and higher-value work.

Even small reductions in mental workload can have a disproportionately positive impact on wellbeing, focus and performance.”

Effects of AI Tools on Jobs and Businesses

AWA’s data found that AI exposure is already widespread across some UK jobs, with 42.7% of UK work tasks having meaningful AI exposure.

Roles expected to see the highest levels of AI impact include research and development occupations, teachers, data analysts, and scientists.

The study suggests AI tools could reduce repetitive admin, routine content creation and other low-value tasks, allowing employees to focus on more valuable and knowledge-work instead.

While concerns remain around the impact of AI on some workplace roles, it is also important to note the opportunities it could be bringing to many workers, creating new business opportunities and changing how some industries operate.

In some sectors, workers are already developing AI tools designed to automate repetitive workplace tasks traditionally handled by junior staff such as Rogo who created an AI tool after being sick of admin-based work. Since launching in 2021, the business is now valued at around $2 billion.

Experts say AI is not a standalone solution

Nathan Gupta, Neuroscience Associate at AWA feels burnout could be having a real impact on the workplace:

“Burnout rarely arrives as a single event. It builds up in our brains’ overtime, and the first place you tend to see it is in the small things people stop doing well. Prioritising gets harder. Decisions take longer. Tasks that are routine can start to feel disproportionately difficult.

What we usually see in organisations is a shift towards reactive work. Someone who would normally plan their week in advance ends up responding to whatever lands in their inbox first. The volume of output can look pretty much the same on paper, but the value of that output drops.

When the Body Budget is operating in the red, and people are running on depleted cognitive reserves, the brain conserves energy by narrowing its focus. In knowledge work, that’s exactly the opposite of what you want. Modern knowledge work relies on the brain structures that enable peripheral thinking, to create connections and links between ideas.

The other thing that suffers is recovery from interruption. Switching tasks always carries a cognitive cost, with the modern-day knowledge worker experiencing an interruption every 2-3 minutes. When someone is well rested and on their A-game, they bounce back from it quickly. When they’re burnt out, every notification, every meeting, every question takes much longer to come back from. You end up with people working at a fraction of their actual capability.”

When debating whether 10.9 hours of freed time could benefit organisations, Nathan believes organisations should be considerate of the working day for their employees:

“The 10.9 hours of freed time has the potential for organisations to get wrong. The instinct will be to absorb the hours straight back into output. From a cognitive wellbeing perspective, I think that’s the worst use of it, because it leaves the underlying overload untouched.

A few things I’d want to see organisations do instead is; building in genuine cognitive recovery during the working day, not just lunch breaks but proper unbroken thinking time, reduce meeting density and the constant low-grade context switching that’s become the default for most knowledge workers, and use some of the capacity for development and upskilling, which has its own restorative effect for the brain.

Modern work has been chipping away at people’s mental headroom for the last decade or so. AI is the first thing in a long time that could meaningfully give some of it back. Whether organisations actually do that, or just use the tools to push people harder, is an important choice to make.”

Dr George Sik, Workplace Psychologist at eras, said:

“Burnout can significantly impact both individual well-being and workplace performance, showing symptoms like increased stress and reduced motivation. Over time, this can affect concentration, decision-making, and work quality.

In response, many organisations are exploring ways to ease workload pressures, including the use of AI tools such as ChatGPT. When used appropriately, these tools can help streamline routine or administrative tasks, allowing employees to focus on more meaningful work.

However, while AI may support efficiency, it is not a standalone solution. Addressing burnout typically requires a broader approach that includes workload management, organisational support, and a healthy work culture.”

The debate around AI has largely focused on jobs and productivity. But researchers suggest the bigger workplace shift may be cognitive.

If organisations use AI effectively, the technology could help reduce the constant mental overload that has become normal in modern work, creating healthier, more sustainable ways of working rather than simply accelerating pressure.

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