Report: AI adoption delays productivity gains

The University of Manchester's Productivity Institute released a report titled 'The AI Ambition Gap,' commissioned by Bytes Technology Group. It examines why AI adoption has not translated into forecast productivity gains. Organizations have invested heavily in retraining staff and reorganizing work, causing immediate costs while payback is delayed. AI tools can raise productivity at the individual task level, but these gains do not automatically translate to greater productivity across a worker's whole role or the entire organization.

The report cites data showing software developers using GitHub Copilot completed around 26 percent more tasks. Professionals using ChatGPT for routine writing and analysis reduced task completion time by 40 percent while improving output quality by 18 percent. However, a study found AI dev tools increased coding activity by approximately 240 percent, while actual software releases grew by only about 30 percent. This gap exists because humans still need to check and test work before release. Researchers state that high task exposure to AI does not automatically make a worker more productive because complementary human tasks become the constraint on time saving.

Bart van Ark, professor at The Productivity Institute and lead author, stated that AI's productivity potential becomes real when faster tasks lead to better performance across the business. The report concludes that companies must keep investing in AI and focus on high-value use cases linked to strategy, customer value, and operational bottlenecks. Gartner reported that 75 percent of corporate board members have yet to see any productivity gains or reduce costs from AI use. Apollo Global Management reckons only the biggest tech vendors are enjoying some sort of AI payoff.