Workday recently released new research that found that while employees are using AI in their work, the technology’s impact is limited, as it has made them busier.
Workers report more time connecting systems as AI adoption expands
According to the report, titled “The Copy/Paste Economy: Why Task-Oriented AI is Failing the Enterprise,” 8 in 10 (82 percent) employees say that they spend “significant time acting as translators, copying and pasting information between systems,” acting as the glue between disconnected systems.
“My day feels busy, but not genuinely productive when I’m pulled into constant coordination tasks and system-related issues that interrupt my actual work,” one study participant noted.
The report notes that most organizations have introduced AI, but only 27 percent have embedded it directly into core workflows, while the majority use it only on the periphery, for individual tasks such as drafting emails, summarizing documents, and answering isolated questions.
Why goals to reduce friction are coming up short
While over 75 percent of employees surveyed rely on AI to reduce friction, automate manual tasks, and make their jobs easier, 43 percent report that their days feel busy but not productive.
However, nearly 9 in 10 report a strong sense of progress, ownership, and connection to organizational goals.
Employees are spending a significant amount of their day doing busy work that systems could be doing, including:
- 77 percent said their work requires reconciling conflicting data across different tools.
- 70 percent say they have to re-enter the same information into different systems or tools.
- 20 percent lose more than seven hours a week to manual integration.
- 25 percent of IT professionals say these efforts define their workday.
Meanwhile, employees report wanting to use AI for more high-impact projects, such as:
- 47 percent monitoring metrics
- 44 percent assisting with onboarding
- 40 percent budgeting and forecasting
- 38 percent routing approvals
- 37 percent supporting financial close
“AI agents operating without access to an organization’s core systems tend to generate results that look reasonable, but they lack context and risk violating compliance rules because they cannot access the policies, approval chains, and data models that encode how a business actually runs,” Workday notes.
“More than two-thirds (68 percent) of employees said missing or unclear information has delayed decisions, and nearly half have been forced to work around core systems altogether.”
The steps organizations can take to make AI more useful across the business
The report does outline a roadmap to help organizations move beyond task-based use cases and build an AI-powered operating model. These steps include:
- Fix the foundation first: Modernize core systems and data to enable AI to produce consistent, reliable outputs.
- Integrate AI into end-to-end processes: Move from isolated tasks to boosts to workflows where AI and humans each own clearly defined steps.
- Design for embedded, intelligent, invisible AI: Ensure AI is delivered in the flow of work, within the tools and systems employees already use, rather than as a standalone solution.
According to Lemongrass’ CTO, SAP customers want AI now, not later – a sentiment shared by customers worldwide. Check out this interview with Eamoonn O’Neill, CTO, Lemongrass, on SAP partners facing a changing customer mandate.