Let AI work tirelessly, humans shouldn’t have to
AI was promised as a liberator — freeing up time, creating work-life balance, and helping us all work 'smarter, not harder.' But look around, and it’s clear that something else is happening. The lines between work and personal life are blurring like never before. The long hours being framed as 'necessary' to stay competitive are, in reality, a consequence of AI's growing presence in the workplace. George Kailas, CEO at Prospero.ai, discusses how companies can put the brakes on this 24/7 work mentality — and why working like an AI is not the future we were promised.
Imagine sitting down to play a duet, only to realise your partner never needs a break.
They don’t pause for water, rest their hands, or even miss a note. That’s quite impressive, right? Now imagine they expect you to keep up with their every move, every note. This is the dynamic between artificial intelligence and the modern workforce: one partner is built to work tirelessly, and the other – a human – is still expected to perform as if they can, too.
The promise of AI has always been alluring: a technology that can crunch data at lightning speeds, solve complex problems, and work endlessly around the clock. Companies champion AI as the ultimate productivity booster, a transformative force that would free human workers from mundane tasks and open up time for creativity, strategic thinking, and a balanced life. But somewhere along the way, that promise became distorted.
Rather than creating breathing room, AI is driving a workplace culture that treats human beings as if they, too, are vigorous machines. The result? An increasingly unsustainable demand for employees to work harder, longer, and more relentlessly — often at the expense of their well-being and sanity. But, we all know AI is only as powerful as the information we put into it and the ways in which we operate it. Thus, AI isn’t the one necessarily cultivating this workplace environment. While, yes, it is aiding in the perpetuation of this overworking culture, companies are responsible for this shift in workplace expectations.
Profits over people
Businesses love to cite AI’s ability to generate exponential value: higher profits, faster operations, and greater market share. And while those benefits are real, they’ve also created a troubling side effect: a workplace culture where productivity is valued above all else.
Employees are increasingly expected to be available at all hours, respond to emails instantly, and tackle larger workloads than ever before. The unspoken expectation is that, like AI, humans should be able to operate without pause or boundaries. Greptile’s infamous 84-hour work weeks are a glaring example of this toxic mindset. Companies justify these demands as “necessary to stay competitive,” but what they’re really prioritising is short-term gains over long-term stability.
By designing workplace policies around AI-driven metrics instead of the well-being of their people, companies undermine their own workforce. This focus on profits at the expense of people is not just exploitative. It’s shortsighted. A burned-out employee is not a productive one, and a culture of relentless overwork leads to high turnover rates, increased healthcare costs, and diminishing morale.
The effects of an exhausted workforce
When workers are pushed to their limits, the damage isn’t confined to the office. The effects ripple into personal lives, families, and communities. Employees subjected to nonstop work are more likely to experience stress-related illnesses, mental health challenges, and strained relationships. Meanwhile, businesses miss out on the innovation and creativity that come from a healthy, engaged workforce.
What’s more, by normalising an always-on culture, companies reinforce systemic inequities. Parents, caregivers, and those managing chronic health conditions are often the first to suffer in environments that demand round-the-clock availability. These expectations create a workplace that’s not just exhausting but inherently exclusionary, penalising anyone who can’t keep pace with an unrealistic standard.
AI’s true wheelhouse
AI’s power lies in what it can do that humans cannot: processing vast amounts of data, running uninterrupted analyses, and identifying patterns in ways that would take human teams lifetimes to achieve. Yet rather than allowing humans to complement AI’s capabilities, some workplaces are asking their employees to keep up with AI’s always-on nature.
This unrealistic expectation ignores a fundamental truth: humans are not machines. We need rest, downtime, and psychological safety to perform well. When companies push their teams to mimic AI’s unyielding pace, they’re not creating a competitive edge—they’re setting their employees up for burnout, turnover, and even serious health problems.
The real issue is not AI itself but how companies choose to use it. Many are more focused on extracting every ounce of productivity — driven by the revenue AI helps generate — than on the long-term health and sustainability of their workforce.
The companies that succeed in the AI age won’t be the ones driving their people to work like machines. They’ll be the ones that respect the human limits machines don’t have and create environments where AI augments, not exploits, the human workforce.
George Kailas is the CEO of Prospero.ai
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