The number — 42% of frontline AI users save a full workday a week; most companies let it evaporate

42% of regular frontline AI users report saving at least a full workday per week. Yet 66% say they get limited or no guidance on what to do with that time, and more than half do not redirect it into higher-value work. Time that is not deliberately reassigned simply evaporates: it dissolves into meetings, email, and waiting. AI's promised productivity only becomes a result when someone decides where the hours go. Before any rollout, decide at the executive level exactly where the freed-up hours will be reinvested—which role, which activity, which metric—and measure that reallocation every month.

Source: BCG, "AI at Work: Why Strategy Matters More Than Tools," June 2026 (11,749 workers, 14 markets).