AI promises to free workers from grunt work, but psychologists say those mindless tasks are exactly what our brains need to recover

As the debate over AI’s role in the workplace rages on, some experts warn that eliminating menial tasks with AI could come with a hidden cost to productivity.

In a Financial Times op-ed last year, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said AI agents were helping customer service workers resolve more queries and helping programmers write more code.

“This is freeing human teams to accelerate projects and deepen relationships with customers,” he said.

The message was clear: AI is taking on more of the grunt work so employees can do the tasks that matter most. 

But in a future where AI absorbs the tasks that make our workdays slightly monotonous—like entering data, organizing our inbox, or updating documents—might we actually miss the boring tasks that break up the work day?

Amy Morin, a psychotherapist and author of the upcoming book The Mental Strength Playbook, told Fortune we just might. 

While executives like Benioff tout AI’s ability to free up........

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