A new report from Glean's Work AI Institute reveals that white-collar workers spend an average of 6.4 hours weekly managing AI tools rather than benefiting from them. The study, conducted with researchers from Notre Dame, Stanford, and UC Berkeley, surveyed 6,000 full-time employees across the US, UK, and Australia between December 2025 and January 2026.

Researchers coined the term 'botsitting' to describe tasks like feeding context, checking outputs, and cleaning up AI errors. While 87% of respondents use AI at work and 75% report increased personal productivity, only 13% believe their organization performs significantly better. This disconnect represents a growing productivity paradox for companies investing heavily in AI deployment.

Workers spending excessive time botsitting show troubling trends: they're 73% more likely to job hunt. Rebecca Hinds, head of the Work AI Institute, describes the work as 'tedious' and 'exhausting' — uncompensated labor that drains morale. Employees increasingly shuttle information between disconnected AI systems and fix mistakes that tools should handle autonomously.

The solution requires more strategic implementation, not just more tools. Organizations seeing real gains invest in helping employees access proper context, learn effective usage, and establish clear standards for AI-assisted work. Companies that skip this groundwork will continue losing talent to competitor organizations with better AI integration strategies.