Key Takeaways
- A new study has found that AI is creating a lot of additional work for employees, with 40% of time saved being spent on fixing errors.
- Frequent AI users are the ones most commonly fixing mistakes, according to the study.
- The study points to the increasingly common problem of businesses using AI to increase workloads rather than streamlining operations.
The questionable return-on-investment for AI just took another hit, with a recent study pointing to the technology creating a lot of correction work for employees that use it.
Modern AI technology has been a real give and take over the last few years. While its ability to streamline operations is obviously impressive, the nitty gritty details often get lost along the way, leading to some brutal AI errors and hallucinations.
Study: AI Time Savings Spent Fixing Low-Quality Results
According to the study from Workday, titled Beyond Productivity: Measuring the Real Value of AI, 40% of the time saved by utilizing modern AI models is currently being used to rework and correct its errors.
Even worse, most frequent users (77%) are double and triple checking the work as much as, if not more, than projects completed by humans.
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“In practice, the highest productivity drag concentrates among employees who use AI most frequently. While usage and time savings are widespread, the quality of that time—and the degree to which it translates into net value—varies significantly.” – Workday study
The Paradox of AI Productivity
There’s no denying that AI is going to change the business landscape, whether we like it or not. Adoption is through the roof, with this study showing that 87% of employees are using AI at least a few times a week.
On top of that, 85% of employees report saving one to seven hours per week using AI, which sounds great until you look a bit deeper, because unfortunately, speed doesn’t always equal productivity.
With so many employees spending those hours correcting and improving low-quality results, the increase in capacity rarely leads to long-term success.
The Best Use of AI for Business
As the study points out, and experts have noted in the past, AI should be used to improve the work of employees, rather than replace them. Because simply increasing capacity and leaving it up to your team to use it correctly is a recipe for disaster.
“Too many AI tools push the hard questions of trust, accuracy, and repeatability back onto individual users…AI should do the complex work under the hood so people can focus on judgment, creativity, and connection. That’s how organizations turn AI‑powered speed into durable, human‑led advantage.” – Gerrit Kazmaier, president, product and technology, Workday
Simply put, you need to give your employees the best AI tools to do their jobs and provide upskilling so they can handle it, rather than trying to reduce your workforce with advanced models you don’t understand.
