AI at Work
Intensification • Tasks • Subjective Experience at Work
Generative AI is rapidly changing how people work, but we are only beginning to understand its consequences for workers. Much of the emerging research focuses on outcomes that are readily measured, such as productivity, adoption, and employment. My research takes a complementary approach, using qualitative methods to study how workers actually use AI and how it changes their lived experience of work. This approach can surface consequences that researchers may not know to measure in advance. For example, my research shows that even when AI makes individual tasks easier, it can intensify work overall by encouraging workers to take on more tasks, multitask, and allow work to spill into non-work time. I am interested in identifying other such consequences of AI for workers—including changes in autonomy, cognitive demands, meaning, expertise, relationships, and well-being—and then developing ways to measure these outcomes at scale and design interventions that preserve the benefits of AI while mitigating its unintended costs.
Related work
Representative press coverage
AI Isn’t Lightening Workloads. It’s Making Them More Intense
The Wall Street Journal, March 11, 2026
AI in the Workplace Is Expanding Responsibilities and Intensifying Work
Business Insider, February 11, 2026
The First Signs of Burnout Are Coming From the People Who Embrace AI the Most
TechCrunch, February 9, 2026
