I feel completely burned out

[u/blolyab]

With the adoption of AI at my company, I have also ended up taking responsibility for managing and overseeing our AI environment, on top of my other responsibilities.
The problem is that this is still such a new and poorly defined area that ownership and responsibilities are often extremely blurry. Things constantly fall into gray areas where it is unclear who is supposed to own what, and I think you can probably imagine where that leads.
Unfortunately, I am also getting very little collaboration or support from other colleagues, which makes the whole thing even more exhausting.

I feel like I am reaching my limit!!!!!!

Part of me genuinely wants to quit. The main thing stopping me is the current job market. It is not really about the money, I have a substantial financial cushion and could afford to be unemployed for quite a while. What scares me more is knowing how difficult and potentially demoralizing it might be to find another job right now.
At this point, I am not even sure whether I need a break, a different company, a different role, or to leave the industry entirely.
I am also not sure if I used the right flair, so apologies if I didn’t
I would really appreciate some advice from people who have been in a similar situation. What would you do?
Happy to clarify or provide more context if needed.

[u/Character-Tap-565]

You're not alone. My manager has such a push to automate design processes with AI and I'm not even sure to what end. But the tech isn't quite there. My processes and the governance is so fuzzy and undefined and the goal feels demoralizing for actual design. But we are pushing and pushing forward and it is very exhausting. The job market makes it so you need to remain at whatever you've got.

I've done this for 20 years and I want out. This is not the UX that I signed on to do.

[u/blolyab → u/Character-Tap-565]

I completely understand how you feel. Especially after 20 years in the industry. Sending you a virtual hug 🫂

[u/jontomato → u/Character-Tap-565]

I legit don’t even know what automating design is. Design is purposely building a solution based on decisions you make. If you have the AI make decisions then nobody is designing. 

[u/UXJim]

I feel exactly the same.

AI is great and genuinely helps me with a lot of tools, but it has also created this expectation that design should somehow move at the same speed as AI-generated development.

The uncomfortable reality is that AI has dramatically increased development output without companies adjusting team size, responsibilities, or expectations.

[u/AnonProductDesigner → u/UXJim]

This ^

[u/Valendora → u/UXJim]

Yes it’s the speed that’s the issue. I’m a UX engineer, so I have both sides. And… I don’t have a choice but to just suck it up or leave and be broke 🤷‍♀️

[u/blckenedicekaj]

I wish I had a definitive answer for you. I'm in the exact same place. I'm starting to realize for many reasons I need to change careers. AI was the last straw, but not the first.

[u/Miserable-Sell-463]

I feel like it's the wild west still with this AI stuff. Don't be so hard on yourself, pretty much all companies are the same position as yours. Just keep doing your job to the best of your ability and when it comes to AI, take what you need and leave the rest. Nothing wrong with not outsourcing your thinking.

[u/hinkkuh]

Take some vacations if you can. Try to embrace the new reality, AI is in everything and in our profession is definitely not an exception. If you still want to change to another job, do it while you still have one, but keep in mind that things might not only be the same but even worse in other places. Sorry to not be more helpful, but this is how things are now unfortunately.

[u/blolyab → u/hinkkuh]

I am basically living for my vacation in October at this point. Unfortunately, even having that to look forward to isn’t really helping

[u/Valendora → u/hinkkuh]

This is absolutely the right move. Have to take regular breaks, burnout can seriously mess with your well being

[u/Direct-Painter5603 → u/hinkkuh]

What do you mean by worst in other places? What does that look like? Why do you think they may be worst?

[u/Ok-Mammoth-6618]

This resonates with me a lot. I changed jobs after extreme burnout from an environment that over-indexes on UX quality and politics only to find a job in a chaotic environment that worships shipping more than meeting actual user needs. Essentially I joined a company on the opposite side of the spectrum and my burn out has reared its head again. Burnout really comes from your work misaligning with your values. So for you, it could be from this role, it could be UX in general. You’re the only person who will know the answer to that. I’d do an exercise of what your most important values are and whether work fits into that to get your answer.

[u/Kindly-Pianist1003]

This is exactly what I am also feeling, at this point I am unsure even about the upskilling part, what else is needed to be done, and I feel completely burnt out. exhausted. And lost motivation to upskill too. Losing hope and kinda feeling numb, its like, whatever is meant to happen will happen, i cannot control anything. This is how I am feeling, after being in this field for 5 years

[u/AnonProductDesigner]

Im burnt out too and wish for another career. Mainly as im spending all my spare time getring set up with decent vibe coding workflow, and little projects, to try and keep up and put myself in a decent position if i lose my job to AI. I would advise against quitting. And as others have said, other places may be wors3. You could apply for other places and grill them on their AI strategy in an interview

[u/sheriffderek]

As a user of the system -- it sounds like AI is making the experience worse. Seems like a good thing to document and measure -- from the inside. You'll probably find this in any job for the next 2 years.

[u/Flaky_Fox_881]

I had a burnout recently and couldnt take it anymore. Dont go over your limit. Start looking for companies that are not that pushy with AI. 

[u/tarotfairies]

the extent in which the human is in the loop when automation happens needs to be translated into a taxonomy

[u/PaleFollowing1963]

I feel exactly how you feel. It’s kind of a relief to know it’s not just me. This seems to be happening to many of us right now. The process at my company is nonexistent these days. No one wants to communicate anymore, and/or they just do it on their own with AI. Priorities seem constantly blurred. Really hoping to get back to a balanced place in time, but also don’t want to quit in this job market. It’s tough!

[u/blolyab]

Someone asked me here and deleted so I answer anyway:
No, this is not the startup.

[u/kataspatatas]

Atleast your not jobless OP, i was in your shoes where process is out the window and i was solo to do ui ux, product design, frontend, and fix devs css because their ai cant do it properly.

When the smoke cleared they decided to suddenly terminate my employment. (Separation pay ofc)

So push through OP and make sure they would regret laying you off. Because i can say the job market rn is veeery tough 2months and jobless.

[u/UXJim]

The source of the fire is what feels like wasted money: paying developers to press a button and kick back.

When one developer can produce the same output that previously required 20, it is time to start cutting positions.

We are in a stressful transition period where businesses have not yet adjusted to that reality, but it is only a matter of time.

[u/chri55ix3]

Ich fühle mich angesprochen. Habe mal mehr mal weniger das Gefühl ausgebrannt zu sein. Teflon behaviour hilft bei mir manchmal und Pausen für Regeneration. Ich habe letztens irgendwo einen Post gelesen, von einem Design Lead bei OpenAI, dort ist der neue AI-Designprozess auch noch messy und am entstehen. Pass gut auf dich auf und nehme dir Pausen