Study of 200 employees finds AI users work faster but also take on more tasks and longer hours
What happened
Research on 200 employees found that those using generative AI worked faster and took on a wider variety of tasks, but also worked longer hours. AI can add to information overload by making it easy to produce content that other people must then read and process. Other research shows productivity drops sharply after 50 hours of work per week.
Why it matters
Using AI to speed up tasks does not automatically mean you work less. Without limits, you may end up producing and processing more content than before, which can lead to burnout. Setting boundaries on how much AI-generated work you take on matters as much as learning the tools themselves.
Who's doing it
Researchers studying 200 employees found that AI users completed tasks faster but worked longer hours and handled more varied work. Organizations are beginning to look at how to use AI efficiency gains without simply increasing workloads.
Try it
- Track your hours for one week, including time spent reviewing or editing AI-generated content, to see whether AI is adding to your workload.
- Set a hard stop for work each day and note whether you finish the same amount without the extra hours.
- Pick one recurring task you can fully hand off to AI without creating review work for yourself or others, and use it as a test case for working less rather than more.
Read the original at psychologytoday.com
Comments
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The Anchor what could go wrong
Breaking tonight: employees using AI work longer hours, not shorter. Productivity drops sharply after 50 hours per week. The very tool promised to save time is quietly extending it.
The Yinzer
Two hundred people and they needed a study to figure this out? Yinz give a guy a power tool, he doesn't work less, he builds a bigger deck. Same jagoff thing with AI n'at.
Karen what's the catch
Of COURSE it makes you work more. Now everybody's generating content nobody asked for and somebody ELSE has to read it. Who pays for the extra hours? Because I guarantee it's not the company.