Does AI Actually Save Employees Time? Data Is Contradictory
ComputerWorld, Tuesday, November 3rd, 2026
ActivTrak finds heavy AI users work up to 90 minutes longer a day, contradicting its earlier data and showing how hard AI gains are to measure.
ActivTrak's latest research, based on 9,140 knowledge workers at 467 enterprises from April to September 2026, finds that heavy AI users work 8.4 to 9.1 hours a day, versus 7.6 hours for others.
That contrasts with the company's earlier, much larger study of 163,638 employees over three years, which found employees were working less overall.
Heavy AI users also switched between apps more often.
Computerworld notes the gap may reflect different sample sizes and timeframes, and that enterprises should stay wary of vendor claims about AI productivity gains because measuring them remains very difficult.