Lately, lots has recently been talked about – especially amongst politicians – about productivity. And for a superb reason: Australia's work productivity growth is low on a 60-year-old.
To tackle this, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese A convened Productivity round next month. This will match the publication of an interim report by the productivity commission that examines five reform pillars. One of them is The role of information and digital technologiesincluding artificial intelligence (AI).
This can be music for the ears of the technology and business area which have been promote enthusiastic The productivity benefits of AI. In fact, the Business Council of Australia also said previously month that ai is Single biggest opportunity in a generation to extend productivity.
But what do we actually find out about how AI affects productivity?
What is productivity?
Simply put, productivity is how much output (goods and services) we will produce from a certain variety of inputs (comparable to work and raw materials). It is vital because higher productivity typically results in a better lifestyle. Productivity growth has explained 80% of the income growth of Australia previously three a long time.
Productivity could be considered individually, organizational or nationally.
How efficiently you efficiently manage your time and resources to do tasks. How many e -mails are you able to answer in an hour? How many products are you able to check for defects in at some point?
is how well a corporation achieves your goals. How many research work of the very best quality are produced, for instance, in a research organization?
is the economic efficiency of a nation, which is commonly processed as a gross domestic product per hour. It is effectively an aggregate of the opposite forms. However, it’s notoriously difficult to follow how changes in individual or organizational productivity result in the national GDP per hour.
AI and individual productivity
The aspiring research, which examines the connection between AI and individual productivity, shows mixed results.
A 2025 Real studies of the AI And productivity included 776 experienced product experts at US Multinational Company Procter & Gamble. The study showed that individuals who were assigned to using AI, in addition to a team of two without. A Similar study In 2023, 750 consultants from the Boston Consulting Group found that the tasks were 18% faster with generative AI.
A 2023 paper Reported in an early generative AI system in a Fortune 500 software company, which is utilized by 5,200 customers support agents. The system showed a rise within the variety of problems by 14% per hour. In the case of less experienced agents, productivity increased by 35%.
However, AI doesn’t at all times increase individual productivity.
A Poll amongst 2,500 experts Finddes Generative AI has actually increased the workload for 77% of employees. About 47% stated that they didn’t know tips on how to unlock productivity benefits. The study indicates obstacles comparable to the necessity to envision and/or correct AI expenditure, the necessity for AI -upskilling and inappropriate expectations of what AI can do.
A current Csiro study examined the each day use of Microsoft 365 Copilot of 300 employees of a state organization. While the self -reported productivity of the bulk advantages, a substantial minority (30%) didn’t. Even those employees who reported productivity improvements expected a better productivity benefits than delivered.
Lukas Coch/AAP
AI and organizational productivity
It is difficult, if not not possible, to attribute changes within the productivity of an organization to the introduction of AI. Companies are sensitive to many social and organizational aspects, each of which could possibly be the rationale for changing productivity.
Nevertheless, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has appreciated the productivity benefits of traditional Ki-DH machine learning for an industry-specific task. Zero to 11% on the organizational level.
A 2024 Summary paper Quotes independent studies that increase the organizational productivity of AI in Germany, Italy and Taiwan.
On the opposite hand, a 2022 Analysis of 300,000 US firms there was no significant correlation between KI introduction and productivity, but for other technologies comparable to robotics and cloud computing. Probable explanations are that AI had no effect on many firms or just that it is simply too difficult to disguise the results of the AI since it is rarely utilized in isolation.
The AI product increases can sometimes be masked by additional human work that’s required for the training or operation of AI systems. Take Amazon Just exit Technology for retailers.
Publicly introduced to 2018It was intended to cut back employees because customer purchases are fully automated. But it According to reports, around 1,000 employees in India were based For quality control. Amazon has labeled These reports “incorrect”.
Think more generally concerning the unknown number (but probably thousands and thousands) of People paid for the labeling of information For AI models.
John G. fragrance/EPA
AI and national productivity
The picture on the national level is even darker.
The AI has clearly not yet influenced national productivity. It could be argued that technology developments take time to influence national productivity, as firms need to learn the way they use the technology and arrange the obligatory infrastructure and skills.
However, this isn’t guaranteed. For example, although there may be consensus about it In some industries (comparable to entertainment), effects are clearer than in others.
Productivity not only makes things faster
The joint story in relation to AI and productivity is that AI automates worldwide tasks, which makes us in a position to do things faster and provides us more time for creative activities. However, this can be a naive view of how work is completed.
Just because you may handle your inbox faster doesn’t mean you spend your afternoon on the beach. The more e-mail you fire, the more you get back and the more it is going to proceed.
Faster isn’t at all times higher. Sometimes we’ve got to Get slower to be more productive. Then great ideas occur.
Imagine a world by which AI isn’t nearly accelerating tasks, but proactively slowing us all the way down to give us space with a purpose to be more revolutionary and productive. That is the true unused opportunity with AI.
