AI Is Saving Us Time. But Are We Actually More Productive?
We're constantly being told that the UK has a productivity problem.
But right now, even the figures don't give us one simple answer.
The latest ONS data shows output per hour was 0.7% higher in Q2 2026 than a year earlier using its newer payroll-based measure. Its traditional Labour Force Survey measure shows it 0.2% lower.
The ONS currently recommends using the payroll-based measure while it continues to improve how productivity is measured.
So, are we more productive than we think?
Perhaps.
But I think there's a much more useful question for an SME:
Is your own business becoming more productive, and do you actually know why?
AI is changing how work gets done
AI is already helping businesses complete tasks faster.
Reports can be produced more quickly. Research can take minutes rather than hours. Administration can be automated and large amounts of information can be analysed in seconds.
If something that previously took four hours now takes two, you've potentially created two hours of additional capacity.
But here's the important bit:
What happens to those two hours?
Are they being spent serving more customers, developing new business, improving your service or doing higher-value work?
Or have they simply been swallowed up by more meetings, emails and administration?
Saving time and improving productivity aren't necessarily the same thing.
Using AI doesn't automatically make us more productive
It's easy to introduce ChatGPT, Copilot or another AI tool and assume productivity must be improving because people are completing certain tasks faster.
But there's another side to it.
AI outputs still need checking. People need training. Technology costs money. And if AI is simply added on top of a poor process, you might just be doing an inefficient thing slightly faster.
So perhaps businesses need to move the conversation away from:
"Are we using AI?"
and towards:
"What difference is it actually making?"
Measure what matters to your business
National productivity statistics are interesting, but they can't tell you whether your own business is becoming more productive.
You can.
Start with some straightforward questions:
Has the time required to complete a regular task reduced?
Can the same team now handle more customers or projects?
Has administration reduced?
Are employees spending more time on higher-value work?
Has customer service improved?
Has the cost of delivering something changed?
And perhaps most importantly:
What are your people doing with the time technology saves them?
You don't necessarily need another dashboard or complicated set of KPIs. Start by measuring the things that actually matter to your business.
Don't just look at technology
AI isn't the only place where time disappears.
Meetings, duplicated administration, unnecessary reports, poor systems and processes that have been around for years can quietly eat into the working week.
One of the simplest questions you could ask your employees is:
"What wastes the most time in your working week?"
And then:
"What could we stop doing?"
If several people give you the same answer, there's probably something worth investigating.
Productivity isn't about working harder
For me, this is the important distinction.
Improving productivity shouldn't mean expecting already busy people to squeeze more into their working day.
It's about helping them achieve more with the time they already have.
That might mean better processes, better training, removing unnecessary work or using technology where it genuinely adds value.
The national figures will continue to be debated. The ONS itself advises looking at longer-term productivity trends rather than placing too much weight on an individual quarter.
But for an SME, perhaps there's a much more useful measure.
Are we producing more value from the time, people and technology we already have?
And if AI is saving your people time:
Are you making the best use of the time you're getting back?
For anyone interested in the figures behind the discussion, the latest data is available directly from the Office for National Statistics productivity release