I'm a mental strength coach who works with founders. AI is causing a burnout surge — here's my advice for combatting it.

"I've never felt more burned out than since I started using AI."

As a psychotherapist and the author of "The Mental Strength Playbook," I've been hearing some version of this from the startup founders who reach out to me for mental strength coaching, to help them stay strong during the age of AI.

Most of them are frustrated that AI isn't handing them back the time and energy they thought it would. Many of them feel less productive and more emotionally exhausted now than they did a year ago.

Here's how AI is contributing to burnout in founders

1. It took away the easy tasks

AI allows us to get rid of repetitive, boring work — tasks like cleaning up a spreadsheet or reformatting slides. However, these tasks also give our brains a much-needed break, so we can recharge in between tasks that require a high cognitive load.

With AI taking on many of those tasks, many founders are finding their workday is now made up entirely of decisions that really matter, with few breaks. They're working at full intensity all day.

2. It replaced the things we were trying to get better at

AI creates a strange dynamic where your output may increase, but you feel less capable as your skills stay the same.

Before mass AI adoption, if someone wanted to get better at sales, they might struggle for a while to create better scripts. With practice, they'd improve over time.

If, however, you have AI write your scripts, you'll never develop the skills needed to improve. In fact, you'll probably get worse, because you're never practicing the very skill you're trying to advance.

Feeling ineffective is a core symptom of burnout, and getting good at something is protective against burnout. It's a large part of what makes hard work feel worth doing. Without that goal of improving, a lot of people lose the drive that was keeping burnout at bay.

3. Nobody feels like they're keeping up

Founders hear rumors about how AI is catapulting their competition ahead. Usually, there's no way to know whether such information is true, but it can create a sense of urgency that you're always behind.

I see many founders deal with uncertainty by working more. I've seen some founders add multiple AI tools each quarter, hoping to relieve the pressure, only to end up with more things to manage, even while each tool promises to help them do more in less time.

4. Lack of connection leads to burnout.

Almost all of the founders I work with talk about the loneliness they feel. They feel isolated from friends who can't relate to their work, or disconnected from family due to their long hours.

Using AI for daily tasks may compound the lack of human connection. Rather than having an administrative team or executive assistant, a founder might be alone, staring at a screen all day.

Loneliness has been linked to poorer sleep, high blood pressure, weaker immune systems, and higher stress hormones. When founders talk about their health falling apart, the isolation they experience often plays a considerable role.

Founders often feel they only have two options

In the past month, two high-profile AI executives — Lilian Weng of Thinking Machines Lab and Fidji Simo of OpenAI — both announced they were stepping back from their respective companies due to ongoing health reasons.

(Editor's note: The day after announcing her departure from Thinking Machines Lab, Weng was confirmed to be joining OpenAI as the leader of a team focused on accelerating internal research.)

In her goodbye note, Weng wrote that if she couldn't give 100% to what she was responsible for, she was failing at her job.

I hear similar things from the founders I work with. They believe they're either at 100% all the time or they're failing. Because of this, they don't dare rest, even when they're tired or sick.

Simo acknowledged that a lot of what made her successful was also what made the decision so hard. I see that in my coaching practice too; the same drive that helped someone get a company off the ground won't let them slow down.

One founder I work with kept telling himself he'd sleep once things slowed down. He said he'd spend a ton of quality time with his kids once he could come up for air. Of course, things didn't slow down.

It wasn't until he overheard his son telling a friend, "I don't have the kind of dad who can come to baseball games and stuff," that he realized his kids were growing up while he kept waiting for things to slow down.

The solution: find a middle ground

The exhaustion founders describe is often real. However, here's a big difference between "I'm depleted, and something has to change" and "I'm burned out."

Someone labeling themselves as burned out can turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy, as they stop looking for solutions.

Here are some solutions I've seen in the founders I've worked with who manage their lives well, despite the stress of the job:

1. They're willing to give something up

They realize they can't optimize everything all the time — including their health — while also working 90 hours a week, no matter the number of AI bots they have running.

They're often willing to trade in a bit of potential revenue in order to stay in the game for the long haul.

2. They think differently about AI tools

When AI saves them time, they don't automatically fill the hours with more work. They automate the tasks they don't care about mastering, but keep doing things they want to improve upon.

They also don't eliminate every boring task, because they want to give their brain a little rest in between hard decisions.

3. They understand there are small changes they can make to reduce their daily stress

Rather than worry about an impressive 3:30 a.m. morning routine, they might focus on sixty seconds of slow breathing in between meetings. Or, they take 15 minutes to walk outside during their lunch breaks to rejuvenate themselves.

Some of the happiest and healthiest founders I've worked with protect their time with family the same way they'd protect an important meeting with an investor. They're intentional about it and willing to accept that there may be a trade-off for doing so.

Do you have a story to share about experiencing AI burnout? Contact this editor, Jane Zhang, at [email protected].