The AI productivity mirage: Executives see eight hours saved. Workers see almost nothing.

40% of executives claim AI saves 8 hours weekly. Two-thirds of workers see under 2 hours. New surveys reveal why the productivity revolution isn't reaching the ground floor.

AI Productivity Gap; Executives vs Workers; Davos Survey

Ask C-suite executives how they feel about AI and nearly three-quarters say excited. The people doing the actual work? Different answer entirely. Anxious. Overwhelmed. That's what almost 70% of non-management employees told researchers. We know which group is closer to reality.

You sense this if you work in a large company. Same building, different weather depending on the floor. Up in the corner offices, AI saves time. Down where the actual work happens, AI creates more of it. Two new surveys, one from Section covering 5,000 white-collar workers and another from Workday polling 1,600, confirm what cubicle dwellers already suspected: the productivity miracle lives mostly in executive imagination.

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