AI productivity gains are real but so is bad management: ‘Leaders are really struggling to articulate what the vision and strategy is’

Earlier this year, Apollo chief economist Torsten Slok made an observation about AI’s “productivity paradox” as data emerged that employees could potentially save an entire workday a week by deploying AI, but economic data showed a steep drop in productivity: “AI is everywhere except in the incoming macroeconomic data,” Slok wrote in a blog post, echoing the famous paradox observed by Nobel laureate Robert Solow in 1987 during the information technology boom. “Today, you don’t see AI in the employment data, productivity data, or inflation data.” New data from Boston Consulting Group (BCG) not only confirms a similar phenomenon is happening in the workplace, but sheds light on why, providing a potential jump-start for businesses experiencing this productivity paradox. BCG’s 2026 Global AI at Work report, surveying nearly 12,000 frontline employees, found 42% of respondents reported eight hours of saved time, the equivalent of one workday a week, as a result of regular AI use, but 66% said they received limited to no guidance on what to do with the time they saved. Half said they’re not using that saved time for more strategic work. According to David Martin, Global leader of BCG’s People & Organization practice, the productivity paradox, at least at the workplace level, comes down to a very human failure: leaders are not communicating clearly just why and how AI should be used in the office. “Senior leaders are really struggling to articulate what the vision and strategy is on AI,” Martin told Fortune. “Consequently, it increases employee fear. It makes it harder for them to even understand what objectives they’re pushing for, and it trickles through to adoption, usage, and the like.” The rise of tokenmaxxing AI’s ability to make good on tech leaders’ lofty promises of productivity gains has come under fresh scrutiny as workplace adoption has continued to rise. For one, the technology has proven itself to be more expensive than human labor, in part a result of