Shaking the Monday blues

By reshaping the rhythm of the workweek, AI is helping people take on Monday with less stress and anxiety

MAYBE YOU REALLY don’t like AI. Maybe you think it’s got your boss itching to eliminate your job, or maybe you’re just annoyed at reading the endless text clearly rammed through ChatGPT. You may not hate this though: AI might be able to cure the Sunday Scaries and the Monday Blues.

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That suggestion comes courtesy of the firm Read AI, a company offering meeting summary and insight tools, which wanted to find out how AI was shifting the patterns of the workweek and how people were feeling on each day. Looking at over 5 million meetings, data indicated that Tuesdays account for 22 per cent of all meetings, with Thursdays close behind, suggesting “employees are reclaiming Mondays and Fridays for focused work.”

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But perhaps the most headline-worthy finding was a marked improvement in overall sentiment on Mondays, particularly for workers who made routine use of AI as a personal assistant tool.

“In the past year, Monday blues have lessened as workers who adopt AI start the week with clarity and momentum,” they wrote, finding that “AI-empowered teams are nearly two times more likely to feel productive at the start of the week, and six times more likely to start the week with clarity and focus compared to those without AI support.”

Their reasoning here is that workers who would have otherwise come in on Monday and had to start their week by planning out meetings, organizing files and generally doing more administrative tasks to get ready for the week can now offload much of that to an AI personal assistant, and hit the ground running. “Adjusting the rhythm of the workweek often transformed low-productivity Mondays into one of its most effective days for workers who use AI,” wrote Inc.com.

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It makes sense. Swinging into action enthusiastically on a Monday has long been a piece of advice for those battling the Monday blues. What Read AI’s research suggests is that AI assistants are helping people achieve that. “Frequent AI users report almost double the satisfaction with their start-of-week flow, compared to others,” they wrote, adding that data indicated demand for access to AI tools was particularly strong for workers who felt time-pressed.

“There is huge potential for AI to step in as a personal assistant and work companion, helping workers reclaim their time, reduce stress and officially put the ‘Monday blues’ to rest,” Read AI said. “It’s for every worker who deserves more time, less stress and a better Monday.” Kieran Delamont