The alarm goes off. Before coffee, I glance at my phone: AI news summaries, overnight updates, alarms set for the day.
My inbox? Already sorted. The calendar? Auto-balanced. Everything feels efficient. Everything feels… full.
Meetings unfold with precision as tasks keep rolling. I’ve got this. AI transcribes, highlights action items, and even suggests replies. Yay! I’m speeding up. I take the suggestions on board and create some videos and posts as well.
People value my prompt responsiveness. But somewhere between the third and fourth call, a quiet buzz starts—not in my ear, but in my mind. It’s not fatigue from working hard. It’s fatigue from processing fast; from being constantly “on top” of things that never stop arriving. Emails, calls, DMs, posts…
By midday, my body knows what my mind resists: this isn’t sustainable. Not because the tools are bad, but because they don’t know when to stop. In fact, it is encouraged. They don’t feel the excess. They don’t stretch too thin. They don’t have to seek alignment. I do.
AI is transforming how we work, streamlining tasks, but is it really stopping us from burning out? Does the fact that they are making us feel more valued through personalisation make us feel invincible? I am constantly trying new tools, working with new platforms. But how long until I cannot keep up?
AI brain-fry is real. Constant oversight, information overload, and the pressure to keep up is leaving high-performers mentally drained. The hamster wheel has just got faster and faster…. The ease of tasks makes us carry out a million more.
But is that our human processing speed? Do we need to match AI’s speed? I would humbly suggest that we need to honour our human timing: slower but deeper, reflective. Our human contribution is not to do more; that’s not sustainable. I’d say it’s about being present, setting boundaries, and protecting our cognitive rest, allowing for curiosity, creativity and intuition. To BE more.
So the real act of leadership becomes clear: we need to pause. Not to fall behind, but to stay human. To ask, “What matters the most?” not “What’s next?” To protect space for thought, for empathy, for the slow, quiet wisdom that no algorithm can rush.
Because in the age of AI, the most radical thing an executive can do is… breathe and reflect.
#FutureOfWork #HumanCentered #Leadership #WorkplaceWellbeing #AIBurnout #MindfulLeadership #DigitalDetox #SustainablePerformance #BeingHumanintheAgeofAI
