AI promises productivity, but for managers, it’s mostly a headache for now

Companies are adopting AI to boost productivity, but managers say it is making it harder to assess employees’ work and adding time spent reviewing and guiding it. The findings point to a gap between fast-moving AI adoption and organisational processes that have not caught up.

A Nielsen survey of 1,700 directors and senior managers across seven countries found that 94% were excited about using AI, while more than half found evaluating work harder and nearly half spent more time reviewing it. Some 78% had changed how they assess staff, giving more weight to prompting and deciding what to delegate to AI. Meanwhile, 46% use AI to inform decisions and 39% to draft performance reviews, raising concerns about bias; 57% also reported more tools in circulation.