Did you know that burnout has recently reached an all-time high level among American employees? It hit 66% in 2025. Globally, 76% of workers burn out on their job sites at least sometimes, and 28% experience this condition “very often” or “always” at work.
But is there any way to build a healthy workplace of the future with no place for burnout?
Sure, and most definitely, it’s an AI way or the highway. Among all AI use cases in business, this is perhaps that very “Save” button you need to press for corporate well-being and success. You’ll understand why in a moment.
From AI chatbots to AI agents that resemble humans (which is vital for humanizing work), there are numerous tools and ways artificial intelligence can fix workplace burnout or even switch it off entirely and for good. We’ll round them up in this article.
But before that, let’s see why burnout is a ticking bomb you may regret ignoring and then learn how to deactivate it with AI tools and, particularly, Nimble by your side.
How Bad Workplace Burnout May Go Without AI’s Preventive Measures
What Is Employee Burnout?
Burnout at work is a state of partial or total exhaustion across three key levels: physical, emotional (mental), and societal. It’s the so-called “bio-psycho-social” model where stress pulls the strings behind the scenes, as they say.
Source: WUSTL
Let’s break it down.
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Bio-level → Physical
Employees’ bodies are worn out. They feel constant fatigue and energy depletion. They may also experience headaches, muscle aches, sleep troubles, or other symptoms (physically).
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Psycho-level → Mental
On this level, workers become unfocused and forgetful, mostly due to psychological stressors on the job site (say, deadline anxiety). But not necessarily, as physical exhaustion may also add “weight” to the pile. Moreover, they are more likely to express aggression and initiate workplace conflicts.
-
Socio-level → Social
Burned-out employees may be reluctant to participate in team-building games or other activities. What’s worse, they may avoid communication and collaboration with their colleagues altogether. Again, some individuals may behave rather aggressively when forced to interact, while others prefer isolation and silence.
But what can go wrong if you don’t try to build a burnout-proof workplace (with the help of artificial intelligence, of course)?
Find the answer below.
The Major Consequences of Burnout for Teams
Higher Turnover
Figuratively speaking, workplace burnout is like a kiss of death for employee retention. In fact, 50% of burned-out employees are already actively searching for a new job or will be soon.
So, if you don’t start preventing employee burnout with AI, your HR inbox will be packed with voluntary termination emails, and you’ll eventually (and literally!) have to bid farewell to half of your team members.
Performance Drops
Nearly six out of ten workers (57%) specify the following negative implications of job-related stress and burnout:
- For 31%: Emotional exhaustion
- For 26%: Zero motivation
- For 20%: Lower productivity
- For 19%: Anger or irritability with customers/colleagues
- For 18%: Feeling of ineffectiveness
As a result, they can’t perform well and fail to stay on track with deadlines and deliverables.
Source: LinkedIn
More Sick Days and Billions in Lost Productivity
When an employee gets burned out, the likelihood of taking a sick day grows by 63%. Consequently, the burnout’s price tag (global) reaches an eye-widening number of $322 billion yearly. This is closely linked to absenteeism and fewer productive workdays.
Higher Risk of Workplace Injuries
Employee burnout is a direct path to safety violations and injuries, often accompanied by work accident claims.
Actually, the study shows that a one-point increase in the burnout rate leads to a 9% boost in the risk of injury at work. It is particularly relevant for more hazardous jobs in industries such as construction, energy and utility, agriculture, etc.
How AI Can Prevent Employee Burnout in the Workplace
1. Spotlight Burnout Signals Before It’s Too Late
If you want to foresee the “storm” coming rather than cope with it when it’s raving, turn to AI monitoring systems. They can help you detect the signs of individual or team burnout before your employees get fully drained to the limit.
Thanks to predictive analytics, AI algorithms can distinguish burnout symptoms like these in the bud:
- Mood swings
- Shifts in communication styles and tones (in emails or chats)
- Changes in biometric data (blood pressure jumps, heart rate variability, fast breathing (aka “stress breathing”), etc.)
- Overworking (too much love for work with zero breaks and late-night logins)
- Sudden declines in productivity and unmet OKRs
- High absenteeism
Here are several AI tools that perform physical or mental health check-ins in real time and constantly keep an eye on employees’ overall wellness:
- VitalSign.ai
- Unmind
- Wellbot.ai
- MoodMinder
- Wellbeing.ai
- MoodFirst.ai
- Happily.ai
For example:
Calix, a telecommunications company that provides IT services, builds a healthier workplace with Unmind’s mood tracker and AI coaching features for employees.
Source: Unmind
2. Teach Self-Care Practices or Redirect to an Expert if Needed
It’s one of the best ways AI can prevent burnout in your team because it can teach your workers how to care for themselves and never let their energy pools deplete to the bottom. Not to mention that people prioritize it today, especially the Gen Z workforce, with 90% already actively practicing self-care to manage their emotions and mental health.
Consider these AI tools supporting employees’ well-being with self-care resources and instructions:
- Sanvello (for self-reflection and journaling)
- Youper.ai (for self-care through cognitive behavioral therapy techniques)
- Resilient.ai (for developing employee resiliency and modulating stress)
- Headspace (for guided, personalized meditations)
Other AI tools can redirect your workers to experts whenever necessary.
For example:
The Starbucks team uses Lyra Health AI, which includes self-care apps, stress management tips, and a medical provider-matching system powered by AI. It matches Starbucks’ workers with the right online doctors or therapists and schedules virtual appointments or live sessions based on their clinical needs or the severity of burnout symptoms.
Source: StarbucksBenefits
3. Celebrate and Reward Wellness Milestones
Why not encourage your employees to practice personal care and support their health even more enthusiastically to avoid burnout at work?
Save this list of AI tools to recognize their individual (or team-wide) progress in promoting health and wellness:
- GoJoe
- YuMuuv
- Remente
- IncentFit
- Wellable
- MoveSpring
For example:
The PwC professional services team chose GoJoe, an AI-based platform for fitness. The company used it to participate in over 40 movement challenges and gamify health through friendly competitions and rewards.
Source: GoJoe
Another example:
Nestlé added Virgin Pulse to the employee well-being program and implemented Healthy Rewards for activities like biometric screenings, health check surveys, and others.
Source: NestléBenefits
4. Reduce Workload but Increase Business Gains
If there’s something weird, and your workload doesn’t look good, who are you gonna call?
Generative artificial intelligence (aka GenAI), of course!
The majority of teams are already using generative AI for productivity and workflow automation. Yet, the percentage varies by industry and business function.
Source: McKinsey
As you can notice, most companies turn to GenAI for creative projects in marketing and sales (42%).
If you also want to reduce your team’s workload and stop burning out, grab the following Gen AI tools:
- Copywriting: ChatGPT, AIDocMaker, Typli AI
- Text-to-image: Ideogram, Sider AI, Midjourney
- Text-to-video: OpenAI’s Sora, Luma AI, HeyGen
- Text-to-voice: Murf AI, VoiceGen, LOVO AI
Audio is quickly becoming a core asset in AI-driven productivity stacks. With voice cloning, teams can replicate natural speech patterns for e-learning, customer service bots, internal training, and leadership comms. Brands are turning to custom voice AI to generate unique, on-brand voices that support everything from wellness prompts to onboarding scripts.
For example:
Santander’s tech stack includes Canva and Adobe Illustrator, with solid AI-powered features for content design. Additionally, the team participated in a Generative AI Hackathon to propel their business forward with artificial intelligence in its GenAI form.
Source: LinkedIn
5. Adjust Work Schedules on the Fly
What if your team is overloaded with too many tasks but has practically no breaks on the daily schedule?
Again, artificial intelligence won’t let your team burn out this time, all thanks to the proper adjustments in their to-do lists. It’s yet another way AI can help you prevent burnout and create a healthier workplace.
AI scheduling tools may optimize their work schedules while giving personalized recommendations for breaks or blocking “Deep Focus” and “Meeting” hours. To mention a few, they are:
- Clockwise
- Reclaim.ai
- SkedPal
- Trevor AI
- Planless.io
Some of these can help you apply useful strategies for task and time management, such as the Pomodoro Technique (for breaking work into intervals) or the Eisenhower Matrix (for prioritizing tasks).
AI in Project Management – How Nimble’s AI Helps Avoid Burnout at Work
When it comes to using AI for project management (PM) in particular, Nimble AI provides substantial assistance in managing projects and tasks smarter. It might be just the perfect AI solution for PM in Agile teams struggling with overload and burnout.
Let’s take a closer look.
Smart-Fill Feature
Nimble’s Auto Fill feature saves plenty of time and effort on manual, repetitive data entry. It analyzes historical information you have previously used and automatically fills in all the necessary fields.
Importantly, you can select the work item type and the exact fields you’d like to auto-fill.
Cross-Project Similarity Feature
Here, the AI algorithm detects similar work items across multiple projects. It can help your team members reduce cognitive load and give them more time to drill into meaningful work instead.
For example:
Nimble’s AI can easily identify similar cards for quick reuse. Once detected, they appear in the Similar Cards Found pop-up window.
Nimble Buddy—Your Personal AI Assistant and Coach
In high-performing teams, employee burnout often occurs not necessarily from overwork but from insufficient support and guidance.
So, meet your Nimble Buddy, featuring two powerful functions—Assist and Coach tabs—giving you a digital hand (or actually two hands: assisting and coaching!).
Assist
The “Assist” tab fetches relevant information and answers your questions, such as “Do I have any cards that require immediate attention?”
Coach
The “Coach” tab is for coaching suggestions like, “How often should I conduct status meetings and share updates with the stakeholders?”
Generative AI Feature
And here’s Nimble’s GenAI in action.
Need to generate a list of To-Dos? There you have it!
OR
Quickly generate a task card description you can edit or refine per your unique requirements.
Read more on how Nimble AI redefines project management and move on to →
Create a Healthier and Happier Workplace with Nimble AI
Deadlines? You’ll meet them all, enjoying every workday (even Mondays). Stress? Not today and not ever!
Nimble can do the heavy-lifting job in project management, so you don’t have to lift a finger (except to click the “Mark as Done” button) and help you prevent burnout with AI.
Try Nimble AI and let your team burn bright, not out!
