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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. 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... more work for the same pay."
Also: 73% of tech job listings require AI skills now: How to show off yours
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. I've noticed employees coming in early, taking lunch meetings, and leaving later, myself included, just to get ahead of the curve."
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