When people first talked about AI, the picture was usually pretty nice: hand the repetitive, fiddly work to a machine, grab a coffee, and spend our time on things that actually matter—or at least feel more creative.

Lovely idea. But once AI enters the workflow, plenty of people have the same first reaction: wait, why am I more tired? Requests arrive faster, first drafts appear faster, and feedback follows right behind. What used to involve waiting for people, research, and conversations can now go through several rounds in an afternoon—or even an hour.

The machine has loosened a few screws for us. It has not, however, given us much more time to stare out the window.