- AI users end up working longer days, despite the promise of improved productivity, ActivTrak study finds
- Heavy AI users could end working up to 90 minutes extra every day
- Software engineers and operations managers found to be among the highest AI users
For years, businesses were told that one of the main advantages of implementing AI in the workplace was that it would lead to greater productivity and efficiency among workers.
However new analysis has found that workers who regularly use AI are actually working longer days than those who don't.
In fact, the study from ActivTrak discovered that AI users are often working up to 90 minutes longer every day.
AI boom or bust?
ActivTrak's report looked over digital work activity from over 9,000 employees at 467 companies between April 1 and September 25 2026, and deduced that the workday of an AI userspanned an average of 8.4 to 9.1 hours - compared with 7.6 hours for non-users, a difference of up to 90 minutes each day.
'Heavy' AI users, aka those which used AI tools for more than 45 minutes across at least five sessions a day, also spent an additional 18 minutes working after hours compared with non-users.
These users were also found to be switching between applications more frequently, and had shorter periods of "uninterrupted focus" than other workers.
There was one silver lining for heavy AI users - the report found they spend much less of their workday in meetings, which took up just 3% of their day, compared to 5% for non-users.
Looking at specific job roles, the report found heavy AI users included software engineers, who averaged 0.6 application switches per hour and spent 78.5% of their active time in core coding applications, and operations managers, who were more likely to rely on browser-based AI tools, and spent 75.5% of their active time in core applications and average 1.1 application switches per hour, rising to 4.1 during periods of heavy coordination.
“AI may help employees complete tasks faster, but our research shows it contributes to longer workdays, more application switching and shorter focus sessions,” said Gabriela Mauch, chief customer officer and head of the ActivTrak Productivity Lab.
“For leaders, the goal can’t simply be AI usage; they need to treat AI usage as a means to measurable gains in productivity, efficiency and business performance.”
The report comes days after Gartner found barely any organizations are seeing real success when it comes to the results of heavily implementing AI in their workplace.
It found just 3% of organizations have hit their targets around productivity and efficiency, as well as trying to cut costs across their business using AI, despite three quarters of leaders expecting AI technology to have a significant effect in their organization, with 85% set to spend more on AI in 2027, despite 38% of them already being over budget.
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