Are AI productivity gains fueled by delivery pressure?

"Engineers merged 27% more PRs with AI - but did 20% more out-of-hours commits. When a response to 'I'm overloaded' becomes 'use AI' - we're heading for unsustainable workloads. The problem is compounded by the fact that AI tools excel at prototyping - the type of work which makes other work happen."

"That gap between 'looking done' and 'being right' is exactly where the extra professional pressure begins to mount. This is really caused by the way we still measure knowledge worker productivity - by the sheer number of artifacts they produce, rather than the outcomes of the work."

"The right way to leverage AI in workspace is as a license to work better and focus on the right things, not as a mandate to produce more things faster. Just because an LLM can churn out a document doesn't mean it's actually good writing."

A study of 500 developers revealed that AI tools increased PR merges by 27% but also increased out-of-hours commits by 20%, indicating potential burnout risks. AI excels at rapid prototyping, enabling product managers to quickly create polished prototypes with real data, which can lead stakeholders to underestimate implementation complexity. This creates pressure on engineers to productionize incomplete work rapidly. The core issue stems from measuring knowledge worker productivity by artifact volume rather than outcomes. AI's polished output masks gaps between appearing finished and being correct, particularly for those lacking domain expertise. Sustainable AI adoption requires building empathy and using these tools to work better and focus on meaningful outcomes, not simply produce more faster.

Read at Ruslan Osipov