Study calls out 'brain fry' phenomenon becoming the new norm

Artificial intelligence has been contentious in recent months, and a new Harvard Business Review study identified one way AI seems to be exacerbating problems it's supposed to solve.

What's happening?

One of AI's biggest unrealized promises is, as CBS News put it, to "let the machines do the work," presumably increasing productivity and freeing humans up for other tasks.

But anyone who has struggled with a difficult dishwasher or crash-prone computer knows that manuals and marketing materials don't always accurately portray convenience-focused tech.

The research group observed a trend among "signals" coming from various areas of the workforce regarding AI integration: Workers reported their workloads increasing or spiraling out of their control rather than easing.

The authors cited one such lamentation by Cua AI founder Francesco Bonacci on X.

"I end each day exhausted — not from the work itself, but from the managing of the work. Six worktrees open, four half-written features, two 'quick fixes' that spawned rabbit holes, and a growing sense that I'm losing the plot entirely," Bonacci confessed.

According to the researchers, existing data on whether AI helped or hindered workplace flows was conflicting, leading them to conduct a study of their own of 1,488 full-time American workers "across industries, roles, and levels."

What they found led them to coin the phrase "brain fry" to describe the "cognitive exhaustion" induced by standard tasks overcomplicated by the introduction of AI workflow — an issue they maintained was "both real and significant."

Why is this concerning?

In 2025, the general public's view of AI devolved significantly on several fronts.

Harvard Business Review examined its toll on full-time workers, but a significant portion of the workforce has found AI to be a complicating factor in simply finding a job. AI integration has inflicted chaos on schools and interpersonal relationships, too.

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On Wall Street, investors have grown increasingly and vocally concerned about whether AI will ever produce returns that warrant the billions of dollars being poured into developing it. 

As debates about AI at work, in schools, and around the economy rage, a more direct issue has abruptly taken center stage: rising energy costs that are largely attributed to the increase in AI data center demand.

Data centers were already a point of public contention when electric bills spiked nationwide.

Experts acknowledged that their energy use drove up prices across the board, and the Department of Energy warned that the public grid couldn't support rising demand.

What's being done about it?

Ultimately, the authors acknowledged that the study was intended to serve as "both a guide and a warning" and, ideally, to "help design AI-driven workflows to diminish burnout."

More broadly, the American public has made its feelings known about data center encroachment and pulled together to stop $98 billion in data center development in late 2025.

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