The top AI fear for 6,000 tech pros isn't losing their jobs - it's more work for the same pay

Tech professionals are feeling squeezed by AI. Burnout is up, optimism is down, survey found. One solution is saying 'no' deliberately. Business The top AI fear for 6,000 tech pros isn't losing their jobs - it's more work for the same pay Most tech professionals wouldn't recommend their own role to someone entering the industry today Written by Joe McKendrick, Contributing Writer Contributing Writer July 20, 2026 at 5:24 a.m

Details

PT Maskot/Maskot/Getty Images Follow ZDNET:Add us as a preferred sourceon Google. --- ZDNET's key takeaways Tech professionals are feeling squeezed by AI Burnout is up, optimism is down, survey found One solution is saying 'no' deliberately --- Many tech professionals are becoming disillusioned and burned out from constantly having to keep up with the pace of change of new technology

Context

Now, the rise of AI may be increasing their uncertainty and driving even more tech workers away Interestingly, this uncertainty is not related to potential layoffs, but something else "The number-one fear in tech right now is not losing your job to AI -- it's being squeezed to do more work for the same pay," according to Noam Segal and Lenny Rachitsky's latest tech worker sentiment survey, covering 6,000 professionals: "AI raised the bar for output, and the reward was..

Impact

more work for the same pay." Many technology professionals are feeling the impact of a changing environment firsthand "I have a close friend who went from being a senior software engineer to school to start over as an X-ray technician," said Kaan Esendemir, AI application architect at UPS "In my day-to-day as an AI app architect, I've noticed the lack of motivation or the assumption that AI can handle everything

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I've noticed employees coming in early, taking lunch meetings, and leaving later, myself included, just to get ahead of the curve." Notably, burnout is up, while optimism is down among tech pros, Segal and Rachitsky found in their survey: "Shipping faster is burning people out More prototypes, more product requirements documents, more agents, more output

Background

The speed AI unlocked got plowed straight back into expectations." Tellingly, they also discovered most tech professionals wouldn't recommend their own role to someone entering the industry today AI is actually being viewed through two opposite lenses Half of respondents to Segal and Rachitsky's survey said they feel "amplified -- more capable, more productive, more excited about their future

Analysis

The other half feel their role is being redefined, that they're feeling destabilized or that they've been diminished." There is also an emerging risk called "cognitive rot," in which tech pros "see the AI's initial output, accept it without applying their judgment, and gradually let their own critical thinking atrophy." How to take back control It isn't just AI creating a sense of burnout and frustration across all industries

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Laura Spencer, chief academic officer at an elite academic academy, who was an IT director herself, observed how, "K-12 tech leaders are expected to move at the same speed as the private sector while working inside FERPA, state privacy law, and a school board that needs a year to approve what a vendor ships in a month That gap between expected pace and permitted pace is what pushes people out, quietly disengaged if not gone outright." Spencer urged tech pros to "stop trying to learn every new release