The AI productivity paradox

91% are using it, 90% can't find the gain

Live webinar with Karlie Cremin | 17th November, 11 a.m. Sydney time

Nine in ten Australian and international firms are using AI. Nine in ten executives can't point to a productivity number that moved. Karlie Cremin on where the time went, and why the answer is sitting in your psychosocial risk register.

Nine in ten firms are using AI somewhere in the business. Nine in ten executives say it has made no measurable difference to productivity or headcount in three years. Both of those figures come from 2026 survey work, and they have been sitting next to each other for months while everyone politely avoids the arithmetic.

The awkward part is that the individual gains are real. Top adopters are measurably several times faster than the person beside them doing the same job. So the time exists. It just isn't turning up anywhere a CFO would look for it.

I think we know where it went. In an eight-month study at a company where nobody was required to use AI and nobody was given new targets, employees took on more anyway. Wider scope, faster pace, work bleeding into the evening. By month six they were burnt out. Nobody asked them to do any of it. The capacity appeared and the work quietly expanded to fill it.

That is workload. Workload has been a regulated hazard in this country since the psychosocial regulations landed, and it is now being manufactured by procurement decisions that never went near a risk assessment. Your AI rollout is a work redesign whether or not anyone called it one.

This session is about the gap, who is absorbing it, and what an officer is expected to have done about it.

Register for the AI productivity paradox
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What we'll cover

  • The 2026 adoption figures set against the measurable-gain figures, and why the two still haven't met.
  • Where your individual time savings go once they leave the individual.
  • Task expansion and role blurring, and why voluntary AI adoption produces workload creep faster than a mandate does.
  • What job demands, role clarity and control mean now that the NSW provisions are live, and what a regulator would expect to see.
  • What the organisations capturing real economic gain from AI have in common, and why the answer goes beyond the tooling.

Your webinar questions

What time does the webinar start?

The webinar starts at 11 a.m. Sydney time. Join Karlie Cremin online for a session on AI adoption, measurable productivity and the workload implications of work redesign. The discussion connects the productivity gap to your psychosocial risk register and officer responsibilities.

What will Karlie discuss?

Karlie will examine the gap between AI adoption and measurable business gains, then follow where individual time savings go. You'll explore task expansion, blurred roles and workload creep, alongside the implications for job demands, role clarity, control and your approach to psychosocial risk.

How do I register?

Complete the registration form on this page to register for The AI productivity paradox with Karlie Cremin. The Register now button takes you to the form. The session begins at 11 a.m. Sydney time and focuses on AI, productivity and psychosocial risk.

Find where your AI time savings go

Register now