Shifting Work Patterns with Generative AI

Eleanor W. Dillon, Sonia Jaffe, Nicole Immorlica and Christopher T. Stanton

No 33795, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We present evidence on how generative AI changes the work patterns of knowledge workers using data from a 6-month-long, cross-industry, randomized field experiment. Half of the 7,137 workers in the study received access to a generative AI tool integrated into the applications they already used for emails, document creation, and meetings. We find that access to the AI tool during the first year of its release primarily impacted behaviors that workers could change independently and not behaviors that require coordination to change: workers who used the tool in more than half of the sample weeks spent 3.6 fewer hours, or 31% less time on email each week (intent to treat estimate is 1.3 hours) and completed documents moderately faster, but did not significantly change time spent in meetings.

JEL-codes: L23 M1 M15 M5 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ain, nep-exp and nep-lma
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Working Paper: Shifting Work Patterns with Generative AI (2025)
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