'I lost two hours of my day' - the harsh reality of AI in the workplace
Source: ZDNet
Cleaned Markdown
*Image credit: MirageC / Getty Images*
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### ZDNET’s key takeaways
- Despite widespread AI adoption, workers’ confidence in the technology has fallen.
- A likely cause is insufficient training.
- Companies are seeking ways to reduce frustration.
For every process or workflow where AI saves time and boosts efficiency, there are several that leave Tabby Farrar’s team feeling the technology is useless.
**Who is Tabby Farrar?**
Farrar is Head of Search at the UK‑based SEO and web‑design agency **Candour**. Like most industries, digital marketing is hotly debating AI. While her team wants to reap the benefits of faster, more efficient work—and reclaim time spent on mundane tasks—reality doesn’t always match expectations.
> **Also:** [95% of business applications of AI have failed. Here’s why](https://www.zdnet.com/article/95-of-business-applications-of-ai-have-failed-heres-why/)
AI can generate product‑lifestyle imagery for clients lacking visuals, but it often hallucinates or omits key points when drafting executive summaries. Refining a prompt to categorize datasets can take so long that doing the job manually seems quicker.
> “As a manager, I’m trying to get the team more on board with AI because it’s the future of many industries,” Farrar said.
> “But there are so many people saying, ‘I’ve lost two hours of my day trying to make this thing work.’”
Farrar and her team aren’t alone in navigating the gap between AI’s promises and its actual performance—an experience that can erode confidence over time.Worker Anxiety Will Cause Real Problems
A January study from workforce‑solutions firm ManpowerGroup found that, for the first time in three years, workers’ confidence in AI declined—down 18 %—while AI adoption grew 13 % year‑over‑year. The divergence may signal that the honeymoon phase with AI is ending and should serve as a wake‑up call for organizations about how they implement AI tools in the workplace.
“You can’t have an intimidated workforce and be fully productive. That anxiety is going to cause real problems,”
— Mara Stefan, VP of Global Insights, ManpowerGroup
Other evidence of the disconnect
- EY report (Nov 2025) – 9 in 10 employees use AI at work, yet only 28 % of organizations translate that usage into “high‑value outcomes.”
“Our research shows why: Employees may be saving a few hours here and there, but nothing that fundamentally changes how work gets done or how the business performs.”
A CEO’s personal mitigation effort
Randall Tinfow, CEO of REACHUM (an AI‑powered learning platform based in Scranton, PA), estimates he spends ≈ 20 hours each week vetting AI tools and partners so they aren’t released indiscriminately to his staff.
- Platforms like Claude Code are saving REACHUM’s developers significant time.
- However, Tinfow notes a gap between marketing hype and actual performance, especially for tasks such as text‑in‑image generation, where some tools simply fall short.
“There’s so much noise, and I don’t want our team to get distracted by that, so I’m the one who will take a look at something, decide whether it is reasonable or garbage, and then give it to the team to work with.”
Also: 5 ways you can stop testing AI and start scaling it responsibly in 2026
Sources
Boosting Confidence
The misalignment between expectations and reality is a key reason for the drop in confidence, according to Kristin Ginn, founder of trnsfrmAItn—an organization that helps companies adopt AI while focusing on the human workforce.
“Marketing demos make it all look easy, but business leaders have to make sure workers understand the trial‑and‑error and refinement that may lie ahead.”
There’s also a psychological element at play. ManpowerGroup’s study found that 89 % of respondents feel comfortable in their current role. Many have performed their jobs the same way for years, so a shift to AI can feel unsettling.
“If you’re now starting to look at how you can use AI for the same task, you all of a sudden have to put a lot more mental effort into trying to figure out how to do this in a completely different way,” Ginn said.
“That loss of the routine, the confidence of how I’m doing it, that can also just go back to the human nature to avoid change.”
Training and Mentorship
Stefan highlighted the importance of adequate training for maintaining confidence:
- 56 % of respondents reported no recent training.
- 57 % said they lack access to mentorship.
“The organizations and the companies that figure out how to address that—how to make employees feel better about the use of technology, the training, and the context—those are the organizations that are going to benefit the most,” Stefan explained.
Also: 5 ways rules and regulations can help guide your AI innovation
Looking for gems
Back at the digital‑marketing agency Candour, Farrar says the company uses a variety of tactics to balance the quest for innovation with the day‑to‑day challenges of a technology that still has a way to go.
How Candour is approaching AI
- Built‑in buffer time – extra time is allocated because everyone is still learning.
- “Test and learn” mindset – experiments are framed as low‑stress trials.
- AI champion – a dedicated person stays abreast of the latest developments.
- Training sessions – led by the agency’s chief marketing officer.
- Regular check‑ins – Farrar meets with her team frequently and is open about her own frustrations.
Also: Turn AI chaos into a career opportunity by preparing for these 4 scenarios
Early wins
- Gemini Gem – a model trained on brand and tone‑of‑voice guidelines that can generate client‑approved quotes for media.
- Custom tools – the innovation lead is building solutions that meet Candour’s specific needs using APIs from companies like OpenAI.
- Shift in attitude – the team’s view of AI‑generated images improved dramatically after the launch of Google’s Nano Banana.
Looking ahead
“If I am going to sideline some of my work over to these tools, I want to be able to trust that it’s going to do as good a job as I would do.” – Farrar
There’s still a long road ahead, but Candour’s structured, transparent approach is helping the team move forward with confidence.