AI gains benefiting employers rather than staff
A new study from several universities indicates that AI adoption in the workplace is primarily benefiting employers rather than employees. Most workers report that time saved by AI is redirected into increased workloads rather than improved work-life balance, with very few seeing salary increases.
Why it matters
This highlights the growing tension between corporate productivity gains from AI and the potential for worker burnout and job displacement.
Employers rather than staff are capturing most of the productivity benefits from the increased use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the workplace.
That is according to a new study from University College Dublin (UCD), Queen's University Belfast, the Nevin Economic Research Institute and Comillas Pontifical University, Madrid.
The findings come from the Working in Ireland Survey 2025, a large-scale survey administered to 4,300 workers in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
It found that almost a third of workers now use AI at work but that this appears to be benefiting employers rather than staff.
"Most workers who save time using AI say they reinvest that time to take on more work, rather than using it to achieve a better work-life balance," the report found.
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