Artificial intelligence has become the latest corporate obsession. Executives talk about it like it is transforming the workplace overnight. But a new report from Foxit suggests the real productivity boost may be far smaller than the hype would lead you to believe.
According to Foxit’s new State of Document Intelligence report, 89 percent of executives say AI tools have improved productivity. Sounds impressive, right? Dig a little deeper and the picture changes. Once the time spent reviewing and verifying AI-generated content is factored in, executives gain just 16 minutes per week. Even worse, end users actually lose about 14 minutes weekly.
The research, conducted by Sapio Research, surveyed 1,000 desk-based workers and 400 senior executives responsible for deploying AI tools across the United States and the United Kingdom. What the researchers found was what they call a “verification burden.” In other words, AI might generate content faster, but employees spend so much time double checking it that the time savings nearly vanish.
Executives believe AI saves them an average of 4 hours and 36 minutes per week when working with documents. However, they also report spending about 4 hours and 20 minutes verifying those AI outputs, leaving a net gain of only around 16 minutes weekly. End users reported something similar. They estimate AI saves them about 3 hours and 36 minutes each week, yet they spend roughly 3 hours and 50 minutes reviewing and correcting the results, which results in a loss of about 14 minutes per week.
“AI accelerates creation, but it introduces new layers of review, fact-checking and correction,” said Evan Reiss, SVP of Marketing at Foxit. “What we’re seeing is a verification burden emerging inside document workflows. Time saved generating content is being absorbed by the time required to trust it. The next phase of document intelligence won’t be defined by more AI features, but by embedding accurate, transparent intelligence directly into workflows — reducing validation time while keeping humans firmly in control.”
Trust remains a major hurdle as well. Thirty six percent of respondents cited data privacy and security concerns as the biggest barrier to deeper AI adoption. Another 34 percent pointed to trust in AI outputs, while 25 percent said accuracy remains a problem.
Interestingly, confidence in AI varies depending on who you ask inside an organization. Sixty percent of executives say they are highly confident in AI-generated output. Among everyday users, that number drops to about one third. Only 1 in 10 end users say they are extremely confident in the accuracy of AI results, compared to one in four executives.
That gap raises an uncomfortable question. Are executives more confident in AI than the people actually using the tools?
The report also found that 68 percent of executives say AI adoption has already triggered restructuring or headcount changes within their organizations. Meanwhile, 72 percent say retraining or upskilling workers has become a high priority. Despite those shifts, only 12 percent of end users say they are very concerned about job security.
Another concern surfaced across both groups. Over reliance on AI for decision making ranked as the number one worry. Both executives and workers said preserving human problem solving skills will remain important as AI becomes more embedded in everyday workflows.
Interestingly, frequent AI users seem to recognize the limits of the technology better than casual users. Among respondents who use AI multiple times per day, nearly three quarters said human problem solving skills remain very or extremely important. Even though more than 90 percent of daily users say AI improves their productivity, they also acknowledge that it still requires human judgment.
Executives still expect AI adoption to grow quickly. Three quarters of leaders surveyed believe AI use in document workflows will increase over the next year. But when asked what would actually make AI more valuable, the answers were surprisingly practical. Better accuracy, less validation time, and stronger integration with existing tools topped the list.
The report also points to a new way companies are evaluating AI investments. Ninety three percent of organizations say they now track something called return on employee, or ROE. Unlike traditional return on investment metrics that focus on cost savings, ROE attempts to measure how AI affects employee capability, confidence, satisfaction, and productivity.
Whether that metric changes the conversation around AI remains to be seen. What Foxit’s data makes clear, however, is that the productivity boom many executives promised may not have fully arrived yet. For now, workers appear to be spending almost as much time checking AI’s work as they are saving by using it.
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