94% of professionals say AI tools have changed the total amount of work they do, according to our latest AI Pulse survey, but the nature of that change is split.
In our latest survey of 121 respondents, the majority report getting more done in less time, while a significant minority say they're simply doing more work overall. The survey also explored how respondents perceive the pace of AI improvement and how many hours per week they spend actively using AI tools.
Most Say the Pace of AI Is Outrunning Them
69.4% of respondents said AI is accelerating faster than they can keep up with. Another 28.9% said it's moving fast but they're keeping up. Just 1.7% said they aren't noticing major changes in their day-to-day use.
And this is a heavy-usage audience. 84.3% of respondents spend five or more hours per week actively using AI tools, with 46.3% in the 5-15 hour range and 38% logging more than 15 hours per week. Only 15.7% reported 1-5 hours of weekly use.
One notable cross-tab: respondents who said they're "keeping up" with AI's pace actually spend more time with these tools than those who say they can't keep up. Among the "keeping up" group (n=35), 48.6% spend more than 15 hours per week with AI. Among those who say the pace is outrunning them (n=84), only 34.5% spend that much time. The people who feel most in control appear to be the ones investing the most hours.
And AI Is Changing the Amount of Work They Do
When asked whether AI tools have changed the total amount of work they do, 54.5% of respondents said they're getting more done in less time. Another 39.7% said yes, but that they're doing more work overall, not less. Just 3.3% reported no meaningful change to their workload, and 2.5% said they aren't using AI tools regularly enough to tell.
That means nearly all active AI users in this audience are experiencing some form of workload shift. The question is whether AI is compressing their existing work or expanding it.
The distinction becomes sharper when broken down by usage intensity. Among those spending more than 15 hours per week with AI tools (n=46), 65.2% said they're getting more done in less time, while 34.8% said they're doing more work overall. Nobody in this group reported no change. Among lighter users spending 1-5 hours per week (n=19), only 36.8% reported getting more done in less time.
The pattern suggests that heavier AI usage correlates with greater efficiency gains, with those putting in the most hours with these tools appear to be extracting the most value from them.
Methodology and Audience Description
In our ongoing AI Pulse surveys, we gather insights from listeners of our podcast to get a sense of how our audience feels about various topics in artificial intelligence. Each survey is conducted over a one-week period, coinciding with the first seven days after an episode is released. During that time, our episodes typically receive around 11,000 downloads.
Our survey results reflect a self-selected sample of listeners who choose to participate, and typically we receive a few hundred responses. While this is not a formal or randomized survey, it offers a meaningful snapshot of how our engaged audience perceives AI-related issues.
In summary, when you see percentages in our headlines, they represent the views of those listeners who chose to share their opinions with us. This approach helps us understand the pulse of our community, even if it doesn’t represent a statistically randomized sample of the broader population.