Is AI truly a time-saver for employees? ActivTrak’s data presents conflicting evidence. Their newest study reveals that heavy AI users work up to 90 minutes more daily, contradicting an earlier report from the same year that showed reduced work hours.
Shifting Metrics
The discrepancy may be due in part to the timespan and sample sizes of the data collection for the two reports. ActivTrak’s current findings are based on behavioral work data gathered from 9,140 knowledge workers across 467 enterprises over a five month period (April 1 to September 25, 2026). This sample is much smaller than that of its previous report based on 443 million hours of work performed by 163,638 employees across 1,111 organizations over a three year period (January 1, 2023 through December 31, 2025).
The latest data indicates heavy AI users work 8.42 to 9.08 hours daily, compared to 7.58 hours for non-users. This contrasts with ActivTrak’s prior finding that AI reduced average workdays by about 9 minutes (2%).
Fragmented Focus
On the productivity front, heavy AI users have 22% shorter focus sessions than light users (37.8 minutes versus 48.2), suggesting their work is more fragmented due to AI use; further, they switch apps 15% more frequently. “Over time, those interruptions add friction to high-value work that requires concentration, critical thinking, and sustained attention,” Sarah Altemus, manager of the ActivTrak Productivity Lab, said in a blog post describing the latest findings.
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ActivTrak’s previous report had found that over the period of the earlier study, focus efficiency, the percentage of work time spent in focused, uninterrupted activity, fell to a three year low of 60% with AI use, and average focused session time in 2025 declined by 9% from 2023. However, that same report found that daily productive time increased by 19 minutes, or 5%, to 6 hours and 36 minutes, with AI in the workplace. Furthermore, productive sessions grew by 13%.
The company’s latest report also tracked the productivity differences between users of tools with embedded AI and users of web-based AI tools. Those using embedded AI switched apps 0.6 times an hour, while those using AI on the web switched between 1.7 and 4.2 times per hour. That’s up to 4x more switching than by employees who don’t make use of AI at all, which creates what ActivTrak describes as a “swivel-chair tax” — the additional effort spent by employees due to the movement between apps.
Measuring the Value
ActivTrak’s previous report noted a 12% increase in multitasking with AI, adding over 10 minutes. Interestingly, light AI users spend more time (81.4%) in core job apps than heavy users (78%). Altemus emphasized that more AI use doesn’t guarantee better focus.
ActivTrak has a useful view of how work moves across applications, noted Sanchit Vir Gogia, chief analyst at Greyhound Research, but he also pointed out that it sells the capability that produces these measurements. Recorded use depends on what the instrumentation can detect, he observed. For example, an employee can use AI at work and still appear in the non-user group, and work on an unmanaged personal device sits outside the measured estate. In addition, an API or a background agent can finish work without producing a desktop session, and passive screen time, an offline meeting captured through a calendar, and paid hours are also different measures.
