There’s another batch of data that’s putting the debate to rest—AI productivity tools are not a promise for the future. They are already giving back a full working day every week to an increasing number of small and medium business leaders.
The recent survey by Tech.co shows that 54% of SMB leaders report an improvement in productivity since incorporating AI into their daily workflow. Marvellous yet, almost a fourth (22%) state that AI saves them 6 to 10 hours a week in their job. It’s not a rounding error, either. That’s a workday that’s been saved, a week that’s been saved, a lifetime that’s been saved.
Its implications are far more than efficiencies of personal productivity. A business leader who recovers 6-10 hours a week of his time doesn’t spend that time on leisure. They are used again in strategy, relationships and decisions which only humans can make well. It can make a huge difference to any business when they are still considering the purchase they know where this time is going or how much investment is really needed.
How Much AI Spend Buys Back a Full Day of Productivity
Not every expenditure of Artificial Intelligence will have the same impact. As shown in the survey data, there is a direct relationship between investment in AI and the time saved per week.
The companies that invest $1,001 to $2,500 in AI tools are clearly the best off: The majority of this group save 6 to 10 hours of productive capacity each week, which is the equivalent of a full day. Compare with businesses spending less than $100 per month on AI, which tends to save less than two hours a week (a significant yet small amount).
The pattern indicates that there is a limit to the capabilities of entry-level AI products. They can do narrow and repetitive tasks with reasonable efficiency, but the deeper the time savings, the more comprehensive a suite of tools that work together that’s needed to achieve it, if it’s truly a time saving that changes the way a leader spends their week. While this is not a reason to overspend or overuse AI, it is a strong reason to consider AI as a serious investment in your business instead of a whim.
The 7 Tasks Business Leaders Are Most Automating
What is being recovered in terms of time? It broke down the most popular tasks that business Leaders are currently outsourcing to AI tools, with the percentage of respondents leveraging AI for each task listed.
Top AI-Automated Tasks Among SMB Leaders
- Writing tasks 29%
- Research 26%
- Customer support 19%
- Taking meeting notes 16%
- Scheduling & calendar management 16%
- Money & bookkeeping 15%
- Staffing & team administration 13%
Pay attention to the distribution, it is a story. Writing and research takes the top spot as it’s the most demanding and time-consuming on the list. It’s bottom of the list for calendar management and team admin, which doesn’t demand as much constant attention. AI is not just being employed for simple, repetitive tasks. They are moving away from working in long sessions, and instead pushing out the long hours of deep work that previously needed large time chunks.
The change marks a significant move towards a better way of working the human today. If the AI does the research brief or the long form communication, the leader can use that time to make a judgment call, make a call when they are unsure, establish trust with a client, and read a room. If the AI does the research brief or drafts a long form communication, the leader can use that time to read a room, build trust with a client, and make a call under uncertainty, which are things AI can’t do.
Customer Support Sees the Greatest AI Productivity Gains
Of all the use cases surveyed, the most dramatic results were seen with customer support. 80% of business leaders who switched their focus from customer support to AI-driven solutions had seen a productivity boost! It was almost 10 times the number of any other category.
The efficiency improvements in this area are a reasonable explanation. Customer support at scale is the repetitive nature of interactions, they are structured and that is the kind of work that AI does very well. Response times drop. Volume limits expand. Costs fall. The numbers provide good arguments for the operation.
But these figures coexist with a human factor to be taken into account. Customer support is probably the first and only direct, personal interaction that a customer has with a business. Once automated this touchpoint changes; sometimes subtly, sometimes dramatically. Companies that manage to leverage AI for productivity in this way, and still maintain human engagement in the key conversations, will be the ones that stand out. There is no conflict between the two, speed and warmth, but it is a challenge to design a system that provides both.
What This Means for the Four-Day Workweek
The bigger picture of this information is one that has been on everyone’s mind for years – and it’s one that business leaders, economists and politicians have been discussing for years. The calculations of the four-day work week shift dramatically if AI tools — which cost $1,001 to $2,500 per month — save users six to 10 hours of time each week.
In the noise surrounding AI, our research has proven that there are real tangible benefits to AI that can make a huge difference to businesses that embrace the technology. 22% of SMB leaders report saving an average of 6–10 hours a week with AI, bringing the four-day work week closer.
—Jack Turner, Editor, Tech.co
The four day work week has always been presented as a cultural or contractual concession; It’s something that an employer gives as a trade off for goodwill or for retaining talent. AI productivity information is reimagining it as an operating result. The hours are not being taken away from the timetable, they are being taken out within it – one by one, one tool at a time.
The Case for Taking AI Seriously Now
This survey data is more valuable for SMB leaders who have been wary of AI, questioning the hype, cost, and fit, than it is to be enthusiastic about. It offers specificity. It identifies tasks being automated, investment ranges that yield results, and the productivity gains that result.
None of these are indications that AI is the best solution for all tasks, teams, or time. But it does indicate that those leaders who are taking on their responsibilities thoughtfully, selecting tools with deliberate intent, investing the resources that will enable them to reach their full potential, and ensuring the human-to-human relationships and connections that are most important to them are protected, are already on a structural edge over those who haven’t started yet.
One complete working day, weekly. Those who are already experiencing it don’t have to imagine it. It just so happens it’s Tuesday.