AI fatigue is rising. Discover why employees are tuning out new tools, and how human-centred design can rebuild trust and adoption.
Everyone rushed to roll out AI tools. Now, many employees are quietly switching them off.
AI was supposed to make work simpler, faster, and smarter but for many teams, it’s doing the opposite. Between endless prompts, new dashboards, and productivity “assistants”, people are starting to feel what analysts are calling AI fatigue: burnout from overexposure to tools that promise the world but deliver confusion.
According to Forrester’s 2025 report, “Ground Your Workforce AI Strategy in Human Experience”, organisations that treat AI as a purely technical upgrade are missing the bigger picture. Success isn’t about deploying the smartest model, it’s about creating trust, usability, and confidence in the people expected to use it.
AI fatigue happens when teams are overwhelmed by too many tools, too little clarity, and not enough value. It’s a subtle but growing challenge inside modern workplaces.
Employees are reporting frustration, inconsistency, and even distrust in AI-driven systems. One week it’s Copilot, the next it’s a new automation suite. Every tool claims to be “transformative”, but few feel designed around how people actually work.
As Forrester notes, most companies have focused on what AI can do, rather than how it feels to use. When technology is rolled out faster than employees can adapt, engagement drops, and so does innovation.
In short: the issue isn’t AI itself. It’s the experience of AI.
Most employees aren’t afraid of AI. They’re tired of feeling like test subjects in someone else’s experiment.
Here are four common reasons trust breaks down:
1. Lack of transparency. People want to know how AI reaches its decisions. If the process feels like a black box, it creates anxiety, not assurance.
2. Poor usability. Tools that interrupt natural workflows or require constant retraining become a burden.
3. Low personal relevance. If AI doesn’t clearly help people do their job better, they won’t use it, no matter how advanced it is.
4. Change fatigue. Too many rollouts, too little explanation. Employees get weary of adapting to “the next big thing”.
Forrester’s research reinforces this: trust and experience are the missing success metrics in most workforce AI strategies. When organisations overlook the human side of adoption, AI initiatives stall.
Combatting AI fatigue starts with empathy - understanding what real people need from intelligent systems.
At New Icon, we’ve seen adoption rates soar when AI tools are designed around the user journey, not just the technical capability. Through Agile Architecture, we co-create prototypes with the teams who’ll actually use them, testing and refining based on feedback before anything goes live.
That approach transforms “change management” into collaboration. Employees don’t just receive AI, they shape it.
Here’s how a human-centred approach helps rebuild trust:
When employees feel ownership, AI becomes less of an imposition and more of an advantage.
Shifting from resistance to empowerment requires reframing AI as an ally and not a replacement.
Employees need to understand how AI helps them succeed, not threatens their role. Forrester’s report found that teams who are trained, involved, and trusted see higher engagement and sustained adoption. It’s less about managing change and more about building confidence.
These habits turn uncertainty into ownership, and that’s where transformation begins.
AI fatigue isn’t a technology failure. It’s a design failure.
When tools are created without empathy for the people behind the screen, adoption will always lag behind ambition. But when organisations place human experience at the heart of their AI strategy - as Forrester recommends - they unlock far more than efficiency. They build trust, creativity, and confidence across their workforce.
At New Icon, we believe the future of AI isn’t about replacing people; it’s about helping them invent the future faster. By grounding AI in human experience through design, testing, and learning, we turn fatigue into momentum.
Because when people trust the tools they use, innovation stops feeling like disruption… and starts feeling like progress.
Explore how our AI Launchpad and Agile Architecture services help organisations design AI solutions that people actually love to use.
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