by Rasheeda Childress, Senior Editor for Fundraising
Chronicle of Philanthropy

Research shows AI tools can lead to longer hours and cognitive fatigue. Learn how to set boundaries that stop the always-on churn and prioritize quality.

Research recently published in the Harvard Business Review found that when employees at a tech company with about 200 workers were given AI tools, they ended up doing more work and being more productive, but they also worked longer hours.

The ongoing research is being conducted by Aruna Ranganathan, a professor at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley, and Xingqi Maggie Ye, a Ph.D. student there. They declined the Chronicle’s request for an interview.

In their research, which was conducted over eight months, they indicated that longer hours may lead to burnout. ​​"Many workers noted that they were doing more at once — and feeling more pressure — than before they used AI, even though the time savings from automation had ostensibly been meant to reduce such pressure," they wrote.

While there are clear differences between for-profit businesses and the nonprofit world, burnout remains a persistent problem for charitable groups. And with more nonprofits experimenting with AI, some experts are concerned that the technology has the potential to exacerbate the problem for nonprofits. 

This “productivity paradox" — increased productivity but higher rates of burnout — is “one of the things I worry about the most with AI in our sector,” says Nathan Chappell, founder of fundraising.AI.

If a nonprofit can spend $20 a month on an AI tool that makes an employee 20 percent more productive, that’s equivalent to an extra day of work. It is tempting to view AI as a way to add to one’s work force without increasing personnel expenses, Chappell says.  But that approach could lead to retention problems, he warns, if staff end up doing more tasks than are suitable for a single job.

“Once the excitement of experimenting fades, workers can find that their workload has quietly grown and feel stretched from juggling everything that’s suddenly on their plate,” Ranganathan and Ye wrote in the Harvard Business Review.

They caution that the extra work can lead to cognitive fatigue, burnout, and weakened decision making. “The productivity surge enjoyed at the beginning can give way to lower quality work, turnover, and other problems,” they wrote.

So how can nonprofits avoid contributing to burnout and still use AI? By setting boundaries and better defining workload.

“So we don’t get caught in [situations] where we're just making the hamster wheel go faster, we have to consciously say we'll do better work, slower,” Chappell says.

Creating Boundaries and Defining Work

Creating a clear plan and setting goals can help prevent overwork, says Amy Starnes, chief innovation officer at Best Friends Animal Society.

The group is trying to show employees how AI can be a helper rather than simply cramming more work into the day, she says. “It could help you so that you can be elevated in the work that you love doing, that is the most meaningful to you.”

Chappell agrees, adding that leaders have to set the tone for the environment to help staff avoid burnout.

“Leaders have to say, Look, we're going to gain productivity, but we're going to safeguard that productivity,” he says. “If I can use a tool to gain 20 percent efficiency, my team is to then safeguard that 20 percent time to do things that are going to be really additive. And that means things that are inherently human.”

For example, Chappell says a fundraiser might spend more time talking to donors instead of spending time on analytics or figuring out whom to call. Fundraisers may find time to call donors without asking for money, just to deepen ties, Chappell says. “That can make a transformative difference.”

Nonprofit staff should be encouraged to examine their core duties and decide where AI can help, says Dan Kershaw, CEO of Furniture Bank, a Canadian nonprofit that helps people afford furnishings. “If you don't really appreciate where you are losing your time, you're just really, really busy,” he says. “If you add AI to the mix, the overwhelm will be there.”

Daniel Lombardi, who works for Kershaw as Furniture Bank’s lead fundraiser, tries not to cram more into his day just because AI is there.

Lombardi tries to spend any newfound time in conversations with donors. He’s also trying to use AI to help him avoid AI burnout. He’s asked his AI assistant to set some parameters for scheduling his day.

“As humans, we're actually pretty bad at multitasking,” Lombardi says. Instead of multitasking, Lombardi says he tries to focus on one thing and complete it. Then, he says, “if I want to go for a walk, that’s totally doable.

“My output is greater, but it doesn't mean I'm suddenly working more hours.”

Rasheeda Childress is the senior editor for fundraising at the Chronicle of Philanthropy, where she helps guide coverage of the field. Before joining the Chronicle, she covered financial and business news about nonprofit associations at Associations Now. Childress is a longtime journalist who has written and edited a variety of publications, including the Kansas City Star, Higher Education Technology News, and Campus Crime. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Howard University in Washington, D.C.