Research indicates that U.S. companies are experiencing losses exceeding $818 billion each year due to lost employee time on administrative tasks that could be automated with AI.
A survey of 3,000 office workers in the U.S. found that those handling administrative responsibilities, such as drafting emails, preparing memos, and generating reports, spend over 5.5 hours weekly on these routine tasks.
When considering the average salary of $115,779 for surveyed office workers, this amounts to around $3 billion in daily losses.
It turns out that email drafts are viewed as the top time-wasters by 34% of respondents, followed by reading emails at 31%, updating spreadsheets at 19%, and report writing at 14%.
Quite a few workers also expressed that researching information online (17%) and data analysis (17%) consume a significant portion of their time.
This burden has led 46% of employees to feel overwhelmed with their management duties, while 50% have even thought about leaving their jobs for this reason.
Despite the growing number of automation options available, 43% of workers mention they use AI tools but could benefit from using them more extensively. Meanwhile, about 33% rely on few or no tools to assist them in their roles.
This study was commissioned by Fyxer as part of their Admin Burden Index, which evaluates productivity costs in everyday operations and how such hidden drains can obstruct business growth.
Rich Hollingsworth, the CEO and co-founder of Email Assistant, noted, “Admins play a vital yet often unnoticed role in modern workplaces. A few extra minutes here and there can accumulate into significant costs for larger teams.”
He further commented on the pressure felt by employees, stating that without a solution, companies tend to accept this situation as just part of the job. However, AI could help ease these burdens, although many workers don’t realize that the tools available to them can indeed address these challenges.
The findings suggest that 37% of individuals who feel overwhelmed by daily administrative tasks believe it detracts from their main responsibilities. A third of the respondents find their tasks tedious, and 31% feel the workload is increasing faster than they can keep up with it.
Moreover, 55% reported a rise in their workload over the past year, estimating that about 30% of this increase pertains to administrative duties.
The survey indicated that 59% of participants work beyond their contracted hours at least once a week, with 11% stating they work every day, which tends to result in nearly an extra hour of work on average.
The study also revealed that employees receive an average of 48 emails daily and send out 36 responses.
According to additional data from Fyxer’s platform, 40% of email activity occurs outside regular working hours, and just managing emails occupies almost two hours of a typical workday.
Rich emphasized that while the repetitive nature of administrative tasks may seem trivial, they are a significant source of stress for even the most highly-paid employees. Mandating workers to perform tasks with little value not only undermines focus and morale but also impacts overall business performance.
“Email is a prime example: employees are expected to spend countless hours in their inboxes while attempting to squeeze in meaningful work during the limited time they have left,” he added.
Top 10 most time-wasting administrative tasks:
- Writing and replying to emails
- Reading emails
- Looking up information online
- Organizing files/documents
- Analyzing or summarizing data
- Preparing reports
- Entering or updating data in spreadsheets or systems
- Managing to-do lists and reminders
- Coordinating meeting schedules and diaries
- Tracking project progress and deadlines
