Harvard Business Review LogoAugust 5, 2026HBR Staff/AI; Antonio M. Rosario/Getty ImagesAI promises to reduce workloads and improve organizational performance, but its benefits often come with a hidden cost: “botsitting,” the work employees do to make AI useful, fromBenjamin is a consultant who advises government agencies on technology partnerships. He signed up for an AI scheduling agent, expecting it to buy back his time. When we interviewed Benjamin, he told us how he envisioned a clutter-free calendar, fewer interruptions throughout his days, and an end to the soul-crushing back-and-forth of scheduling meetings. What he got instead was a second job: managing the agent he’d hired to manage his calendar.
How Much Time Do Your Employees Spend Botsitting?
AI promises to reduce workloads and improve organizational performance, but its benefits often come with a hidden cost: “botsitting,” the work employees do to make AI useful, from supplying context and checking outputs to correcting errors. Research shows that workers spend nearly a day a week on these tasks. To capture AI’s full value, leaders must account for this labor, build organizational context into AI systems, and measure quality and employee experience alongside efficiency and productivity.
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