Are AI benefits becoming invisible?

Productivity associated with technology in the workforce may be coming back to bite employees, according to new findings.

While AI is indeed saving time, the latest ELMO research suggests AI-enabled productivity boosts are only raising expectations and demand.

Not only are almost half (47 per cent) of surveyed Australian workers claiming work expectations have increased since AI integration, but 56 per cent have found that saved time gets swallowed up by additional tasks.

In accordance, 45 per cent now feel pressure to complete work faster.

This is creating new tension in Australian workplaces, according to ELMO partner, AI consultant and organisational psychologist, Dr Amantha Imber, who warned that “faster does not automatically mean better”.

She said: “When people save time with AI and that time is immediately replaced with more tasks, the benefit can start to feel invisible. That is when productivity gains risk turning into pressure, rather than progress.”

The research further found that extra time is most commonly spent on more strategic work (19 per cent) or focus on quality (18 per cent), but more than a tenth of respondents are given more work (11 per cent) or are able to enjoy more downtime or flexibility (11 per cent).

In this way, Imber said: “The most valuable use of AI is not simply squeezing more output into the same day.”

“AI-created capacity should be used for better thinking, stronger client relationships, learning, collaboration and higher-quality work. That is where AI starts to feel genuinely useful to both employees and employers.”

Employee sentiment was generally positive; more than 60 per cent agreed their organisation is assisting the adaptation to AI, but only 16 cited organisation performance as very good.

Interestingly, men were more likely than women to feel their organisation is addressing adaptation at the same rate as the work is being changed.

However, Imber noted that this gap persists. She said: “Most people are still using AI task by task. They open a tool, ask for help with one thing, then move on to the next.”

“The people and teams getting bigger gains are building more reliable ways of working with AI. They are looking at repeatable workflows, not just one-off prompts.”

In the same vein, workplace policies themselves and associated sentiment are both patchy – almost the same number of people felt their organisation’s AI policies help in some ways, but hinder in others.

Another 7 per cent feel policies only make it harder to use AI effectively and safely, and 12 per cent are not aware of the existence of any current policies.

According to ELMO Software president Joseph Lyons, the core challenge for organisations is how work changes around technology.

He said: “Leaders need to be clear about where AI should be used, how success is measured, and what happens to the time it creates. Without that clarity, employees can feel like the goalposts are moving.”

Similarly, workplaces that see AI as a workforce design challenge will position themselves for a strong, sustainable, and productive future.

“AI should help organisations lift performance without simply adding pressure,” Lyons said.

“That means looking carefully at roles, workflows, skills and accountability and creating the conditions for people to do better, higher-value work.”

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