Last year and this year have exposed me to the many ways AI tools can boost my productivity and help me get more done in as little time as possible.

Laying out the finer points of a lengthy document, building out a schedule for all types of routines and finding the best approach to my to-do list are just a few of the ways the likes of ChatGPT and Gemini have assisted me with my everyday tasks. But I have noticed instances where it's added more time to tasks that were meant to be a lot quicker to complete. One of them even happened to me, while I’ve observed some of them happening to other people in my life who utilize AI as a crucial part of their workflow.

Just by taking a look at the McKinsey Technology Trends Outlook 2026, you can see proof of AI being a hindrance to some professionals. A standout statistic from that report states that “Our research finds that in 30 percent of companies, productivity fell after teams began using agentic AI tools.”

With all that in mind, here are three signs that you or someone you know may be suffering from AI productivity drag.

It’s easy to prompt AI tools to help you generate reports, emails and summaries in a matter of seconds.

But we all know chatbots have a bad habit of getting things wrong and outputting inaccurate and even repetitive information. Instead of actually spending all that extra time fixing all the errors AI may have included in the first draft of a report you told it to write up, that time could have been better served writing up that first draft yourself and asking AI for the best ways to improve it.

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