AI has important impacts on mental health and wellbeing.
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The use of AI is growing fast, and many of us are using it significantly in both our work and our life, but it can have some concerning impacts on mental health and wellbeing.
If we’re excited about AI or worried about AI, we’re right. It’s a mixed story of impacts and outcomes, from AI’s positive effects on efficiency and effectiveness to its negative effects on emotions, mental health and quality of life.
Our Expectations of AI
AI is here to stay, and today’s AI is as bad as it will ever be. Said another way, AI will get better over time and will continuously improve.
But it’s important to understand our typical human responses to technology. In fact, when we face new technology, we are likely to overestimate its effects in the short term and underestimate its effects in the long term. This is Amara’s Law named for the IFTF researcher who identified the dynamic in 1978.
In the immediate term, we tend to feel optimistic about the effects of new technology and the media increases this hype, leading to an overestimation of its impacts. We’re impatient and waiting for all that the new technology promises. Then, in the longer term, as we get used to the new tech, we are likely to take it for granted even as it has tremendous influence on everyday tasks, behaviors and work.
This is related to the pattern Gartner has identified as the hype cycle in which we tend to see a spike in the interest in new technology in the immediate term followed by a crash as reality sets in. This is followed by a steady rise in use and interest as we build skills and comfort with the new technology.
These dynamics help us appreciate not only the effects of technology, but how it affects us as well.
The Value of AI
As we’re reacting to technological advances, many studies point to how it shifts the human experience, including AI’s value in contributing to better quality work, more efficiency and better output. And AI is changing how we think as well. Gallup studies show that we use AI most for consolidating data, automating basic tasks and generating ideas. While data from other studies found that AI is transforming how we think, and we’re using it most for creation and analysis. We’re using it slightly less for evaluating, applying, understanding and remembering.
Importantly, as we offload cognitive tasks to AI, we naturally rely less on ourselves, which can reduce our competence and confidence as well as our motivation and even our neural activity. For example, when we use our GPS and in turn lose our ability to find our way around without its assistance. Cognitive offloading isn’t necessarily negative when we gain efficiency and quality, as long as we’re intentional about which thinking skills we cede and which we retain.
AI Increases Stress and Burnout
Beyond the benefits and implications of AI’s effects on our work, it also has important impacts on our mental health and wellbeing. In particular, as organizations use AI to a greater extent, employees tend to feel greater levels of job stress and burnout.
One study looked how much AI was being used in organizations. It assessed whether AI was being used as part of HR; production and operations; marketing and customer management systems; strategic and planning systems and financial and accounting systems. The more the organization used AI, the more people reported job stress. And the more they reported job stress, the more burnout increased.
But interestingly, when people had a greater level of capability and effectiveness with AI, the less job stress or burnout they felt. All of this is according to research published in Humanities and Social Sciences Communication. The implication is that greater AI adoption may negatively impact wellbeing, but providing support for employees in terms of training, development and feedback can reduce the negative effects.
But beyond whether your company is adopting AI, your own use of AI can make a difference in your wellbeing. In fact, if you increase your use of an AI assistant (like ChatGPT) to the point that you’re using it compulsively, constantly or without control, you are likely to become anxious and burned out. It can also reduce your sleep which in turn negatively impacts your levels of anxiety and burnout, according to research published in Acta Psychologica.
AI Creates Techno-Stress
It’s really a matter of techno-stress, a term coined by Craig Brod in 1984. Techno-stress can include multiple elements.
- Techno-overload is when we feel like we have to increase the pace of our work or we feel overwhelmed.
- Techno-invasion is the feeling that we’re constantly connected and unable to manage a boundary between work and life.
- Techno-complexity describes situations in which we have to invest a lot of time or effort into learning, so we understand how to use technology.
- Techno-insecurity is fearing job loss because of technology taking over tasks or because of higher-skilled people using AI and taking over our work.
- Techno-uncertainty is the feeling that technology will develop so fast that it causes us to constantly adjust and learn, causing instability and ambiguity.
The researchers who established these definitions also found that when people experience more techno-stress, they in turn experienced reduced job satisfaction, retention and commitment, based on research published in Information Systems Research.
And research published in Behavioral Science found that more techno-stress results in more negative emotions and less positive emotions, resulting in reduced quality of life. In addition, more techno-stress results in greater depression and anxiety, according to a study published in Frontiers in Psychology.
The bottom line? Techno-stress is something we experience in a variety of ways, and it has negative impacts. As the expectations for speed and efficiency rise, or when we feel pressure to climb the learning curve, adapt and build our skills constantly, it can reduce our feelings of esteem, effectiveness and commitment.
AI Contributes to Mental Health
The news isn’t all bad, as there are situations where AI bots can be helpful to wellbeing.
In particular, bots that engage with people and converse with them (called conversational assistants) can have positive effects can positively affect mental health. In fact, their use was associated with reduced depression and distress, although they didn’t positively affect overall wellbeing. In addition, the most positive effects were the result of having humans who were also involved in the therapy and who were able to develop meaningful relationships and effective communication with patients, according to research published in the NPJ Digital Medicine.
Use AI with Intention
AI is here and it will continue to change the way we work and live. Our ability to lean in, learn and adapt will certainly drive our success in the new world of AI. We’re wise to be intentional about how we integrate AI, and how we preserve the behaviors and work we value most in ourselves, from creativity and curiosity to connection.
