AI Saves Time: Do You Work More—or Take Fridays Off?

If you had one extra day per week, what would you do with it? Or—perhaps more accurately—what would your boss want you to do with it?

It’s not just a theoretical question, but one that more firms are confronting, thanks to AI. A new study from the London School of Economics finds that employees who use AI for work tasks save an average of 7.5 hours per week. The problem is that few firms have decided how, exactly, to use and track that time. And then there is the question, mostly from workers, on whether the extra time could help alleviate burnout: Nearly half of employees in one recent survey said the time savings belongs to them, not their employers. 

Bryan Ackermann, head of AI strategy and transformation at Korn Ferry, says that most firms are focused on productivity gains—but only in the simplest terms: reducing headcount. “Beyond firing people, they aren’t thinking strategically about how to incorporate time savings into increased value-added activities,” he says. 

From the start, AI promised to increase productivity and efficiency for firms by allowing people to focus on more impactful and complex work. But Shanda Mints, vice president of AI strategy and transformation at Korn Ferry, worries that—absent a clear strategy— the time AI saves employees will quickly evaporate. “Any extra time employees have is usually taken up with whatever task comes their way,” she says. 

Beyond being broadly counterproductive, this could increase, rather than reduce, burnout. It could also create disengagement among employees who’ve already taken on additional work due to AI-related layoffs, say experts. To be sure, some leaders have been surprised to learn that many employees consider AI-driven time savings to be their own—and a safeguard against burnout. Survey after survey has shown employee complaints about burnout to be steadily increasing. 

For her part, Cheryl D’Cruz-Young, a senior client partner in Korn Ferry’s Sustainability and Global Energy practices, says she doesn’t see AI-driven time savings leading to structural change: Companies are unlikely to grant employees four-day workweeks, for instance, she says. But she suggests that giving back some of that time to employees, rather than immediately filling it with more work, could be beneficial. “It is clear people want more flexibility, and with AI allowing them to work more efficiently, giving it to them could actually increase productivity in the long run,” she says.

It’s crucial for leaders to be intentional about turning the time saved by AI into meaningful value creation, says Stephen Lams, a senior vice president of data and analytics for the Korn Ferry Institute. This will involve a three-pronged strategy, he explains: firms should first identify which employees would benefit the most from AI; then they should train and upskill them; and finally, they should meticulously track the impact of these changes on performance. Instead of thinking about how one employee is saving 7.5 hours per week with AI, says Lams, leaders should think about how those hours scale across an entire workforce—about how they could be reinvested to drive corporate growth. “Leaders need to think about how to redesign work to really take advantage of the time saved by AI,” says Lams.

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