AI saves time and costs time, at the same time

76% of AI users say it saves them an hour or more per week

Hubstaff, a time tracking company, surveyed 1,068 full-time US workers in computer-based roles in October. It reports that 79% use AI at work, 76% of those who could estimate say it saves at least an hour a week, and 46% say their expected workload has increased since adopting it. Asked what they do with saved time, 39% of AI users say they finish earlier and 26% take on more work. Hubstaff says 45% spend an hour or more a week correcting colleagues’ AI-generated work. The survey is commissioned by the vendor and unweighted.

Alan's takeIf 45% of workers spend an hour a week fixing colleagues’ AI output, whose time are we saving? Not the people doing the fixing. People can only correct AI work if they know what right looks like, which means the cleanup lands on our most experienced people. Widespread AI use may help our least experienced people, but it quietly turns our experts into editors of everyone else’s work. We need to amplify our experts, not bury them.