Workday Survey: Distributed AI Tools Create "Faster but Not Necessarily Better" Work Challenges for Employees in Hong Kong and Taiwan

Workday's latest survey indicates that disparate artificial intelligence (AI) tools and systems are imposing hidden productivity costs on employees in Hong Kong and Taiwan, causing friction, delaying decision-making, and increasing employee workload. Despite employees' optimistic views on AI, about a quarter of workers in Hong Kong and Taiwan still spend seven hours or more each week transferring information and verifying data.

Overview of Survey Results

According to the report "The Copy/Paste Economy: Why Task-Oriented AI Fails to Meet Business Needs," while many employees report that AI helps accelerate the completion of individual tasks, these benefits are often offset by the time spent frequently switching systems, checking output results, and manually transferring information. The survey shows that approximately 80% of employees in Hong Kong and Taiwan spend significant time managing work across multiple systems or tools.

The Impact of Productivity Illusion

The survey results reflect a phenomenon known as "productivity illusion." Although employees in Hong Kong and Taiwan are more optimistic about AI than the global average, 90% of respondents say AI improves their daily work experience, and 79% believe AI can shorten the time needed to complete tasks. However, only 58% say AI helps enhance work efficiency. This indicates that while AI can improve the efficiency of individual tasks, it does not genuinely save overall work time.

Workday's General Manager for Greater China, Zhan Zhiyuan, stated that businesses in Hong Kong and Taiwan are actively embracing AI, but many are still merely integrating AI into existing, fragmented systems and workflows. When employees need to switch between different tools and systems, these efficiencies are often negated.

Challenges Faced by Businesses

The survey also found that the costs associated with the fragmented application of AI have a more pronounced impact on businesses in Hong Kong and Taiwan compared to other global markets:

• Only 25% of Hong Kong companies and 12% of Taiwanese companies have integrated AI into their core workflows, below the global average of 27%.
• About 80% of employees report that missing or unclear information leads to decision delays, and 79% say different teams often disagree on data accuracy.
• 74% of employees indicate they are forced to redo work due to issues with company systems or data, higher than the global average of 64%.
• Only 69% of employees believe their company has a trustworthy single source of information, lower than the global average of 78%.

The survey shows that integrated AI platforms perform significantly better than disconnected standalone applications. Companies can enhance overall work efficiency by delegating low-value "copy/paste" tasks to AI.