{
  "id": 7741351,
  "title": "Arbeitszeit: Dieser Rechner zeigt, wie viel Sie künftig arbeiten müssen",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/16/arbeitszeit-dieser-rechner-zeigt-wie-viel-sie-kunftig-arbeiten-mussen",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-09-16T08:10:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Handelsblatt",
    "slug": "handelsblatt",
    "url": "https://www.handelsblatt.com/unternehmen/management/arbeitszeit-rechner-haben-sie-durch-ki-mehr-oder-weniger-arbeit/100233077.html"
  },
  "original_language": "de",
  "account": "Many employees experience increased workload rather than reduced stress due to artificial intelligence (AI). Wei Jiang, an economist at Emory University, has wondered about the contradiction between AI's productivity promises and the real-life impact she has experienced. Jiang and researchers from other universities studied how AI actually changes the daily work routine and, specifically, the workload of employees. Based on data from the American Time Use Survey (ATUS), they found that in the USA, average working hours are increasing instead of decreasing. The Handelsblatt newspaper has created a calculator based on these research findings and data from Germany's labor statistics to predict your future working hours in 2027 based on various criteria. The prognostication of your future working hours is based on two central factors: The industry in which you work and the extent of your AI usage. The researchers explain that those who use AI either little or a lot tend to work more than before the AI introduction in their company. This pattern arises because employees who previously used little AI might now work longer hours, requiring more training or time to integrate AI into their daily routines. However, the strength of this connection is weak, and should be interpreted with caution. On the other hand, employees who use AI extensively now work significantly more than before. This aligns with initial surveys from the IT sector, which suggest that programmers do not work less, but more, in the AI era. One possible reason for this increased workload, according to Jiang, is that companies face intense competition in an AI-driven work environment. Instead of aiming for the same output as before but with fewer hours and thus more efficiency, companies aim to increase their output using technology. Other studies suggest that high-stress job markets and the AI hype, especially among mid-level management, lead to more working hours. These employees strive to convey the impression that they are successfully using AI to increase efficiency. Sociologist Diana Enriquez interviewed 50 mid-level managers in the USA who all wanted to demonstrate that they were effectively utilizing AI to boost productivity. Professor Laura Venz, an expert in labor psychology at Leuphana University in Lüneburg, has found many other European studies showing that AI has not reduced working hours so far. Instead, tasks become more complex, and working hours intensify as employees spend more time checking the output provided by AI. According to Venz, the focus shifts from routine tasks and simple knowledge queries to more supervisory work. Employees spend more time verifying AI-generated solutions, which can require more cognitive effort than coming up with the solution and implementing it themselves. Tasks become increasingly complex, and employees find it harder to estimate how long they will need for a task, leading to overtime. Moreover, emails, code, and AI output are very long, adding more time to read through them. Consequently, employees who use AI extensively are reportedly exhausted and less focused. The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) conducted a study revealing the so-called \"AI Brain Fry,\" a feeling that one's own brain is being \"fried\" by AI. The authors state that this phenomenon may lead to employees making more mistakes at work and desiring to quit their jobs. The \"AI Brain Fry\" particularly occurs when people constantly check AI-generated work and switch between multiple applications. While job cuts due to AI are still rare, Jiang and Venz explain that this does not necessarily mean that AI is not a job killer, as companies still rely on humans to oversee the technology. While some jobs may be eliminated in a specific industry, remaining employees might be burdened with more work as they are expected to handle more tasks with AI. AI is also increasingly taking over tasks that were previously handled by entry-level employees, such as rewriting code or implementing simple functions. This could potentially transform a junior developer's role, with newcomers focusing more on providing data for AI. Economists predict that entry-level positions might evolve, with newbies focusing more on providing data for AI rather than performing traditional tasks.",
  "summary": "Sollte KI nicht Arbeitszeit ersparen? Erste Studien zeigen, dass teils das Gegenteil der Fall ist. Woran das liegt – und wie viel mehr oder weniger Sie womöglich bald arbeiten.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "Handelsblatt",
        "title": "Arbeitszeit: Dieser Rechner zeigt, wie viel Sie künftig arbeiten müssen",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/14/arbeitszeit-dieser-rechner-zeigt-wie-viel-sie-kunftig-arbeiten-mussen",
        "published": "2026-09-14T08:32:00.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}