Boosting workplace productivity isn’t just about doing more—it’s about working smarter. When teams operate efficiently, businesses can serve customers better, innovate faster, and increase profitability.
Throughout history, major technological shifts, from the Industrial Revolution to the Information Age, have unlocked significant productivity gains. As discussed in the Harvard Business School Online course AI Essentials for Business, AI is poised to carry the same transformative potential.
Why AI Matters for Workplace Productivity
Many daily tasks employees perform are repetitive and time-consuming. While necessary, they don’t add meaningful value to your organization. When employees are consumed by low-value tasks, they have less time for the strategic or creative work that drives your business forward.
This also affects their overall work experience. Under the service-profit chain, reduced employee satisfaction leads to lower retention, diminished productivity, and, in turn, decreased customer loyalty and profitability.
AI enables businesses to automate or augment repetitive tasks so employees can focus on more impactful responsibilities. As established by HBS Professor Iavor Bojinov, who co-teaches the online course AI for Leaders with HBS Professor Karim Lakhani, AI generates two types of value:
- Operational benefits: These improve how work gets done by reducing time and costs. Examples include document generation, scheduling, and data analysis.
- Strategic benefits: These strengthen your ability to innovate, differentiate, and scale, such as launching a new product or entering new markets.
“The key difference is that operational benefits make you more efficient, while strategic benefits can make you more differentiated, resilient, or scalable,” Bojinov says in AI for Leaders.
Key Areas Where AI Can Boost Productivity
When identifying tasks to automate or augment, Lakhani recommends in AI for Leaders that you should evaluate:
- Frequency: How often a task occurs and how long it takes
- Value: The benefit of completing the task accurately, versus the risks of getting it wrong
“High-frequency, low-value tasks are great for full automation, because the downside is low and small efficiency gains can add up,” Lakhani says in AI for Leaders. “High-frequency, high-value tasks are prime candidates for automation or using AI to assist. But if the risk is high, it’s still smart to keep humans in the loop.”
Low-frequency, high-value work often requires a hybrid approach that blends AI with human oversight.
With this framework in mind, here are several areas where businesses commonly use AI to boost productivity.
Administrative Work
Across departments, many employees spend substantial time on routine, repetitive administrative tasks. An HR magazine survey found that the average office worker spends more than 600 hours per year on such tasks. Automating even a portion of them can generate significant time savings.
Tasks well-suited for AI automation include:
- Email management
- Data entry, analysis, and management
- Scheduling and calendar coordination
- Document processing and filing
- Report generation
Human Resources
Human resources (HR) teams perform high-impact work when focusing on talent acquisition, employee development, and risk management. Yet they also complete many administrative tasks that are prime candidates for automation, including:
- Resume and application screening
- Interview scheduling
- Onboarding paperwork
- Employment eligibility verification
- Role-specific training
- Payroll and benefits administration
- Employee development and upskilling workflows
Marketing and Sales
Marketers create the most value when they can focus on creative, strategic work. Yet, a study by media agencies PHD and WARC found that global senior brand marketers spend only 18 percent of their time thinking creatively; most of their schedules are taken up by reporting and optimizing.
AI can streamline:
- Content creation, such as emails, blog posts, graphics
- Content calendar management
- Social media planning and posting
- Performance analysis and reporting
- Customer segmentation
- Advertising optimization
- A/B testing
Sales teams face similar productivity barriers. Salesforce reports that salespeople spend less than 30 percent of their time selling. AI can support several tasks, including:
- Lead scoring, qualification, and nurturing
- Email outreach and follow-up
- Scheduling prospecting and sales calls
- Meeting preparation
- Transcribing and summarizing calls
- Identifying action items
- Sales forecasting
Project Management
Project managers guide initiatives, such as product launches, market expansions, and digital transformations, from planning to completion. AI can take on several time-consuming tasks, including:
- Resource allocation
- Timeline creation and updates
- Dependency and risk management
- Progress tracking
- Scheduling optimization
- Budget reporting
- Stakeholder communications
Common Challenges and How to Avoid Them
AI has significant productivity potential, but implementation requires thoughtful planning. Below are two potential challenges and how to address them.
1. Over-Automation
Businesses sometimes attempt to automate every possible to-do. Some tasks require human judgment, while some are better suited for augmentation—not full automation.
In AI for Leaders, Lakhani recommends asking:
- How structured is the task?
- What level of risk is involved?
- How much human judgment is required?
“In real-world scenarios, augmenting human work—rather than replacing it—often strikes the best balance,” Lakhani says in AI for Leaders. “AI offers scale and speed, but humans provide judgment, ethics, and experience.”
2. Lack of Oversight
Without proper governance, AI introduces risks that can harm your business. In AI Essentials for Business, co-taught by Lakhani and HBS Professor Marco Iansiti, they highlight five key ethical considerations that require oversight:
- Amplification: Could AI disproportionately elevate certain viewpoints?
- Algorithmic bias: Could incomplete or prejudicial data lead to discriminatory outcomes?
- Cybersecurity: Does increased data usage heighten risk?
- Privacy: How is customer or employee data protected?
- Inclusiveness: Could AI adoption unintentionally harm specific groups—for example, through the elimination of jobs?
Empower Your Employees to Provide Real Value
By automating high-frequency, repetitive tasks, you free your teams to focus on creative, strategic work that advances your organization. But to unlock these benefits, you need clarity on which tasks should be automated, augmented, or left untouched, which an online course can help you identify.
If you’re ready to boost workplace productivity with AI, explore HBS Online’s two AI-focused courses: AI for Leaders equips you with the skills to guide AI transformation, while AI Essentials for Business provides a foundational understanding of key concepts. You can also dive deeper by completing three courses in the Digital Transformation and AI Learning Track to earn an advanced Certificate of Specialization. Not sure where to start? Download our free course flowchart to find the right fit.
