Leaders expect artificial intelligence (AI) to improve productivity and open up employees’ schedules to encompass more high-value work, but employees feel the introduction of AI tools is making their day-to-day operations harder than before, a new survey report found.
The survey report, From Burnout to Balance: AI-Enhanced Work Models from freelancing platform Upwork, found that 77% of employees say that AI tools have actually decreased their productivity and added to their workload in at least one area.
The inability to tap into productivity gains is aggravated by training gaps. “Nearly half (47%) of employees using AI say they have no idea how to achieve the productivity gains their employers expect,” the report said.
The report surveyed 2,500 global C-suite executives, full-time employees, and freelancers in the US, UK, Australia, and Canada.
Further strain on workloads is putting more employees at risk of burnout, according to the report. Inadequate business practices are adding fuel to that fire: Employers believe they are providing sufficient wellbeing, but employees say different.
Eighty-four per cent of C-suite leaders say that productivity does not come at the expense of wellbeing. However, 81% of executives report that, over the past year, they have expected workers to increase their output and responsibilities.
“Most executives feel their companies have moved toward more flexible work models (90%) and that practices are in place to help employees understand how their work connects to higher-level strategic goals (94%),” the report said.
Even though employees say they can work flexibly (73%) and with greater clarity on strategic goals (80%), they disagree with the executives’ sentiment. While 69% of C-suite executives are aware that many employees are struggling with the current demands of their roles, the report said, only 60% of full-time employees believe their employer values wellbeing.
These expectations could have damaging effects on retention. Forty per cent of employees feel their company is asking too much of them when it comes to AI, the report said. Because of this, 1 in 3 employees surveyed say they will likely quit their jobs in the next six months because they are “burned out or overworked”, the report said.
Crux of the problem
If AI is expected to make jobs easier, why is that not always the case?
According to Upwork’s research, organisations are failing to unlock the full productivity value of generative AI because they are introducing new technologies into outdated models and systems.
“Business leaders need to shift how they organise talent and work by balancing traditional and nontraditional approaches,” the report said. “This includes leveraging alternative talent pools, co-creating measures of productivity with their people, and becoming fluent in the language of skills rather than job descriptions.”
Workers who say they’re struggling to keep up with their organisation’s productivity demands are most frequently evaluated against speed and efficiency outcomes (39%), the report said, rather than their contributions to strategy (29%) or their creativity and innovation (24%).
Bringing greater balance to productivity and wellbeing requires new ways of working, the report said. Putting AI tools within the same jobs and workflows and asking employees to conjure productivity from them risks escalating the sense of burnout people are already experiencing.
“This productivity paradox arises from … the lack of workforce development investments alongside the technology, and the frequent misalignment between technology and business processes,” the report said. “Consequently, many organisations find that anticipated technology-related gains in productivity are delayed or diminished.”
— To comment on this article or to suggest an idea for another article, contact Steph Brown at Stephanie.Brown@aicpa-cima.com.