Signal Only 30% of leaders see freed-up time going to higher-value work

Summary

This signal questions whether time saved by AI is actually turning into more valuable work. In McKinsey's 2026 survey, only 30 percent of leaders said employees use freed-up time for higher-value activities such as critical thinking and creativity. Just 13 percent believe employees can now handle more tasks in parallel. One in ten leaders go further, saying their employees miss the productivity opportunity and show no meaningful rise in output. McKinsey argues that capturing AI's productivity promise requires redesigning how individuals and teams operate, rewiring work end to end, and building capabilities quickly and at scale.