Artificial intelligence does not reduce work. It intensifies it, new research shows.
An eight-month study of how generative AI changed work habits at a U.S.-based technology company with about 200 employees found they worked at a faster pace, took on a broader scope of tasks and extended work into more hours of the day, often without being asked to do so.
And this didn’t come because of slave-driving employers. Indeed, the company did not even demand AI use, although it did offer subscriptions to commercially available AI tools.
“On their own initiative, workers did more because AI made ‘doing more’ feel possible, accessible and, in many cases, intrinsically rewarding,” Aruna Ranganathan, an associate professor at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, and PhD student Xingqi Maggie Ye write in Harvard Business Review.
They identified three main forms of intensification:
- Task expansion: Taking advantage of the fact AI can fill in gaps in knowledge, workers increasingly stepped into responsibilities that previously belonged to others. Product managers and designers began writing code, researchers took on engineering tasks and individuals attempted work they would have outsourced or avoided in the past. They initially edged into these tasks – “just trying,” as they tended to describe it – but eventually widened the scope of their jobs. “These tools provided what many experienced as an empowering cognitive boost: They reduced dependence on others and offered immediate feedback and correction along the way,” the researchers note.
- Blurred boundaries between work and non-work: Because AI made beginning a task so easy, individuals slipped small amounts of work into moments that had previously been breaks. They might prompt AI during lunch, in a meeting or while waiting for a file to load, leaving it to contribute its magic while they did other things. The prompting seemed more like chatting, actually, than working. But the researchers point out over time it led to a work day with fewer natural pauses and a more continuous involvement with work.
- More multitasking: A new rhythm took over the workplace as employees continually managed several active threads at once, doing their own work and overseeing AI generation. “They did this, in part, because they felt they had a ‘partner’ that could help them move through their workload. While this sense of having a partner enabled a feeling of momentum, the reality was a continual switching of attention, frequent checking of AI outputs and a growing number of open tasks. This created cognitive load and a sense of always juggling, even as the work felt productive,” the researchers say.
Veteran HR executive Ashley Goodall warns of another issue: The 98 per cent problem.
With most electronic tools, you expect the result to be 100-per-cent right. You don’t second guess your calculator if you put in the right numbers and used the right function. If your formula is right in an Excel spreadsheet, when the calculations are made you can treat them as correct.
Not so with AI. “It is less like an inanimate tool and more like an over-enthusiastic intern with only a tenuous grip on professional ethics: On the one hand, someone with boundless energy and willingness to take on any challenge; and on the other someone who hasn’t yet figured out that lying to people in order to make them happy is not a strategy for long-term success,” he writes on his Substack blog.
He says the point of delegating something is not to have to do it yourself. But if there is any doubt that what you’re getting back is less than perfect, you have to doublecheck it. “For delegated tasks, 98-per-cent good is functionally identical to 60-per-cent good or 40-per-cent good – you’re going to have to check it all,” he says.
That adds to your work, as you make choices of what to delegate and what not – and then check up on the electronic intern.
Quick hits
- Be impenetrable to social pressure but quick to adapt to evidence, advises Ottawa thought leader Shane Parrish.
- Even great ideas don’t sell themselves, change consultant Greg Satell points out. You need to master three forms of power: Hard power, soft power and network power. “Hard power compels. Soft power persuades. Network power amplifies. Real influence comes from knowing how to combine all three,” he says.
- Productivity writer Laura Vanderkam says her top time management rule is to give yourself a proper bedtime so you get sufficient sleep.
Harvey Schachter is a Kingston-based writer specializing in management issues. He, along with Sheelagh Whittaker, former CEO of both EDS Canada and Cancom, are the authors of When Harvey Didn’t Meet Sheelagh: Emails on Leadership.