Businesses spend $800B on jobs that could be done by AI, artificial intelligence platform claims

Admin tasks that could be handled by AI tools are costing US businesses more than $818 billion a year in lost staff time, according to a study.Research among 3,000 American office workers found that those responsible for admin tasks – from writing emails, taking notes, and preparing reports – estimate they waste an average of over five and a half hours a week manually completing routine work.Based on the average office worker salary of those polled being $115,779, this equates to $3 billion lost each working day.The research revealed drafting emails is the single biggest drain on time, cited by 34 percent of workers.This was followed by reading emails (31 percent), updating data in spreadsheets (19 percent), and preparing reports (14 percent).Others added researching information online (17 percent), and analysing data (17 percent) were particularly time-consuming.As a result, 46 percent feel overwhelmed by the amount of admin required in their role, with 50 percent admitting it has made them consider leaving their job.Despite the growing availability of automation, 43 percent have some help from AI tools but could do with more, while 33 percent rarely or never use any tools to support their role.The research was commissioned by Fyxer as part of its Admin Burden Index [http://www.fyxer.com/admin-burden-index], which explores the productivity cost of routine tasks and how this hidden drain could stunt business growth.Rich Hollingsworth, CEO and co-founder of the email assistant, said: “Admin has quietly embedded itself into modern work.“An extra 10 minutes here, an hour there, spread across hundreds or thousands of employees, quickly compounds into massive costs.“Workers feel the drag, but without any way to solve it, businesses have normalised it as just ‘part of the job’.“AI is ready and able to lift this burden, and workers are eager to accept the help.But they’re not seeing the tools they’re given actually rise to the challenge.”It also emer...