How AI Productivity Fails

AI Completely Failing to Boost Productivity, Says Top Analyst

AI may or may not excel at a lot of things, but from an economic standpoint, it's definitely not making us more productive.

The Productivity Is Real. The Scaling Isn't.

What running an AI agent team taught me about why organizations can't do what one person can.

AI Code Is Producing a Quality Crisis Nobody Wants to Talk About

The productivity numbers look great. AI coding tools are everywhere.

Companies Are Being Torn Apart by AI "Workslop," Stanford Research Finds

Not only is AI hampering productivity, but it's also blowing up collaboration and souring employee dynamics.

The Jevons Paradox of AI - Wesley's notes

Why AI can make us more productive but will never save us time

The AI productivity myth is more harmful than you think

Perceived productivity may be up thanks to AI, but there's debt collecting in the shadows.

AI-Generated “Workslop” Is Destroying Productivity

Despite a surge in generative AI use across workplaces, most companies are seeing little measurable ROI. One possible reason is because AI tools are being used to produce “workslop”—content that appears polished but lacks real substance, offloading cognitive labor onto coworkers. Research from BetterUp Labs and Stanford found that 41% of workers have encountered such AI-generated output, costing nearly two hours of rework per instance and creating downstream productivity, trust, and collaboration issues. Leaders need to consider how they may be encouraging indiscriminate organizational mandates and offering too little guidance on quality standards. To counteract workslop, leaders should model purposeful AI use, establish clear norms, and encourage a “pilot mindset” that combines high agency with optimism—promoting AI as a collaborative tool, not a shortcut.

AI Doesn’t Reduce Work—It Intensifies It

One of the promises of AI is that it can reduce workloads so employees can focus more on higher-value and more engaging tasks. But according to new research, AI tools don’t reduce work, they consistently intensify it: In the study, employees 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. That may sound like a win, but it’s not quite so simple. These changes can be unsustainable, leading to workload creep, cognitive fatigue, burnout, and weakened decision-making. The productivity surge enjoyed at the beginning can give way to lower quality work, turnover, and other problems. To correct for this, companies need to adopt an “AI practice,” or a set of norms and standards around AI use that can include intentional pauses, sequencing work, and adding more human grounding.

Thousands of CEOs just admitted AI had no impact on employment or productivity—and it has economists resurrecting a paradox from 40 years ago | Fortune

In the 1980s, economist Robert Solow made an observation that reminded economists of today’s AI boom: “You can see the computer age everywhere but in the productivity statistics.”

Thousands of CEOs admit AI had no impact on employment or productivity—and it has economists resurrecting a paradox from 40 years ago | Fortune

In the 1980s, economist Robert Solow made an observation that reminded economists of today’s AI boom: “You can see the computer age everywhere but in the productivity statistics.”

"AI" and Productivity

[I keep bringing these up on Bluesky, so I think it’s time to gather them up and make a post out of them.] This is a collection of articles...

Why Hasn’t AI Made Work Easier? - Cal Newport

I’ve been studying the intersection of digital technology and office work for quite some time. (I find it hard to believe that my book, ​Deep ... Read more

Uber president says AI spending is getting ‘harder to justify’

There’s no clear connection between AI usage and productivity.

Gender Productivity Paradox: Artificial Intelligence Is Failing Women - ICTworks

We're seeing decreasing distributive returns at higher AI exposure levels. Precisely when we should expect technology to be most equalizing.