Have you ever noticed a disconnect between your own expectations and those of your boss? With the rise of Generative AI, that gap might widen significantly. A recent survey involving workers and leaders across the U.K. indicates that bosses believe AI could help them save 50% more time than their employees predict.
Balancing Expectations
The survey, conducted by Workday and including 700 workers and 500 business leaders from large U.K. organizations, revealed that managers expect AI to save them 4.4 hours each working day, while employees estimate a more modest saving of 2.9 hours daily. This difference highlights a recurring issue since AI's introduction in the workplace—employers may be overly optimistic about the technology’s potential.
There is a clear gap between how employees and managers perceive AI, reflecting broader concerns about the technology among workers. Whereas bosses view AI as a tool for creating motivated teams, driving wage growth, and boosting operational profit, many employees suspect the primary goal is simply increasing profitability. Additionally, there is a notable 22 percentage point difference, with more leaders believing AI could enhance their career development and opportunities compared to employees.
"Leaders tend to be naturally more bullish and optimistic," says Daniel Pell, head of Workday U.K.
To avoid this mismatch contributing to employee disengagement—a problem identified by four out of 10 employers as a major productivity hurdle—employers need to reshape their employees' perceptions.
Whenever a new technology emerges, employees often worry more about its impact on them than leaders do. Thus, organizations must carefully consider how to deploy AI in a responsible and trustworthy manner, Pell advises.
Maximizing AI Potential
Employers can bridge the trust gap by demonstrating AI’s benefits to employees, such as reducing administrative tasks and meetings and allowing more time for creative projects. Emerging evidence shows AI is beginning to augment tasks, with examples like ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot decreasing admin time and producing early successes.
For instance, U.K. retailer Matalan uses AI to write product descriptions, freeing up copywriters for more creative tasks and helping reduce attrition rates. According to Workforce Labs Research, AI is saving workers an average of 97 minutes per week—a figure lower than Sapio's findings, but still significant. However, this extra time isn’t always used productively.
Commenting to Fortune in June, Slack CEO Denise Dresser noted: “They were still focusing on the work of work, meaning we haven’t yet shifted operationally and mentally to do new things.”
Even without AI, U.K. employers face a productivity challenge. Growth in output per worker has stagnated since the global financial crisis, perplexing policymakers. The Workday survey found employees are only productive for about 5.9 hours per day, wasting around a quarter of their eight-hour workday.
Pell believes AI offers the chance to tackle more meaningful tasks and close this productivity gap. If successful, Workday estimates AI could unlock £119 billion in productivity gains for large U.K. organizations.