A survey of workers and leaders across the U.K. suggests bosses think AI could help them save 50% more time than their employees.

Managing expectations

The poll of 700 workers and 500 business leaders at large organizations in the U.K., commissioned by Workday, found bosses thought AI could save them 4.4 hours each working day. Employees, on the other hand, believe AI could save them 2.9 hours a day. 

The difference in expectations backs up a common theme that has emerged since the introduction of Generative AI to workplaces—that of employers being overly bullish about the technology’s capabilities.

There was an obvious gap between employees’ and managers’ perceptions of AI, which speaks to a wider anxiety about the technology among workers.

While bosses thought an organization’s main motivation for introducing AI was a mix of motivated teams, wage growth, and operational profit, more cynical staffers thought their company’s primary goal was simply profitability.

There was also a 22 percentage point higher share of leaders who thought AI could improve their career development and opportunities than employees.

“Leaders, I think, are probably naturally slightly more bullish and optimistic,” Daniel Pell, Workday’s U.K. head.

Bosses will hope they can turn their employees’ perceptions on their heads, or it could contribute to what they already regard as a critical productivity obstacle: unengaged employees.

Four out of 10 employers said unengaged employees harmed their organizations, tied with a lack of incentives as the biggest barrier to productivity gains.   

“I think whenever there’s a new technology paradigm, employees are probably more concerned than leaders are about the impact it’s going to have on them and why organizations are doing it,” said Pell

“This is where, you know, organizations are going to have to think very carefully about how they deploy AI in a responsible and trustworthy way.” 

What to do with AI?

Workday’s Pell says employers can reduce the trust gap around AI by reassuring employers of its benefits to their workflow, including fewer administrative tasks and meetings and more time to do work on creative projects.

There is emerging evidence that AI is beginning to augment workers’ tasks, with ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot beginning to reduce admin time, with plenty of examples of early success.

U.K. retailer Matalan, for example, was using AI to write product descriptions on its website, freeing up the company’s copywriters for more creative tasks and helping to reduce attrition rates. 

Slack Workforce Labs research found that desk workers using AI are still likely to spend 37% more of their time on routine administrative tasks. 

Commenting on the results to Fortune in June, Slack’s CEO Denise Dresser said: “They were still focusing on the work of work, which means we haven’t quite made the operational and mindset shift to begin to do new things.”

Even without AI, employers across the U.K. have a productivity hill to climb. Growth in output per worker has been turgid since the global financial crisis, and continues to stump policymakers.

The Workday-commissioned research found workers were only productive for about 5.9 hours per day, meaning around a quarter of their eight-hour day was wasted time.

Workday’s Pell thinks the opportunity to carry out more meaningful tasks with the help of AI should close that dead time.

If that all comes to pass, Workday estimates that £119 billion in productivity gains could be untapped at large U.K. organizations with the help of AI.