Sensing Into Self-Doubt With AI Tools

How are you protecting your team's strengths, confidence and connection as AI tools become part of everyday work? Our research found that burnt out workers who regularly use AI are using their strengths at less than half the rate of those who rarely use it, are carrying noticeably more self-doubt, and are more likely to turn to a chatbot than a colleague when they're stuck. In this episode, Michelle takes us behind the scenes of her own team's two-year experiment with AI, sharing why they set clear boundaries around when to use it, and the simple strengths-mapping exercise now helping people decide what's theirs to own and what's the tool's to run day to day. 

00:54 Michelle unpacks three warning signs from the research: burnt-out regular AI users using their strengths less than half as often as light users, carrying more self-doubt, and turning to the bot before a colleague. 

05:20 Michelle traces how her team's AI use evolved from early experimentation two years ago to choosing tools and tasks deliberately, guided by a clear policy about what stays human and what doesn' 

09:54 Michelle describes how passive, prompt-and-wait AI use started disrupting her own flow state, leaving her feeling foggy and slower at work that used to feel effortless and energizing. 

13:21 Michelle connects the dots between two findings: as strengths use drops off, self-doubt and quiet isolation from colleagues both tend to rise together. 

17:03 Michelle unpacks the five-question HEART check the team built for talking honestly about how AI is landing for each person, from naming feelings to celebrating tiny wins.  

23:02 Michelle walks through the simple, paper-and-pen strengths-mapping exercise the team uses to decide what's theirs to own on a task and what's the AI's to run. 

28:00 Michelle names the real risk behind all of this: not just learned helplessness, but slowly losing capabilities she's spent years building and isn't ready to give up.  

Take our free five-minute change survey to see how you're navigating change right now at thechangelabs.com. 

Want to go deeper? Grab the research and explore evidence-based tools for navigating change — including our new Change Fatigue Antifote mini-masterclass — at thechangelabs.com.