Workday study finds AI tools add hours of admin in ASEAN

Workday has published research on how disconnected AI tools and business systems affect employees in ASEAN. The study found that one in five workers in the region lose more than seven hours a week moving information and reconciling data.

The findings highlight a gap between enthusiasm for AI and the day-to-day reality of using it in large organisations. While 86% of employees surveyed said AI had improved their daily work experience, many also reported spending large parts of the week switching between systems, checking outputs and manually transferring information.

According to the research, 66% of respondents spend at least half their time translating and coordinating between systems and teams. The study suggests AI may help with individual tasks, but those gains are often offset by the administrative work needed to connect different tools and datasets.

The report focused on professionals in HR, finance, IT and operations at organisations with more than 500 employees. It surveyed 6,100 professionals globally, including respondents in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand who actively use AI in their jobs.

Manual burden

Several results point to routine friction in office work across the region. More than eight in 10 employees said they spend significant time moving information between systems, while 84% said they spend significant time coordinating work across teams or business systems.

Data consistency is another challenge. Some 82% said they regularly spend significant time reconciling inconsistent information across multiple systems, and 72% said teams often disagree over whose numbers are correct. Three-quarters said decisions are delayed when information is missing or unclear.

Administrative work also remains a substantial part of the workload. The research found that 76% of employees spend time on administrative or bureaucratic tasks that create significant day-to-day friction. At the same time, four in five said navigating processes and systems is a source of stress.

That combination of high engagement and heavy manual work stands out in the findings. Nearly nine in 10 employees remain highly engaged and report a strong sense of progress, ownership and connection to organisational goals, despite inefficiencies in their workflows.

Integration gap

The study found that only 30% of organisations have embedded AI into the core of their business. As a result, many employees use standalone applications alongside existing systems rather than working within a more unified setup.

Jess O'Reilly, General Manager, ASEAN, Workday, outlined the company's view of the issue.

"The real friction is structural - unclear guidance, inconsistent outputs, and tools that don't integrate where work actually happens. Organisations need to move beyond task-based AI use cases to an operating model where AI is integrated within the flow of work for greatest effectiveness," said O'Reilly.

The argument reflects a wider debate among large companies over how AI should be adopted. Many businesses have introduced AI assistants and other tools to support specific tasks, but fewer have integrated them deeply into finance, HR, operations and other core systems where data is created, reviewed and approved.

In that environment, employees can end up doing more work, not less. They may use AI to produce a draft, summary or analysis quickly, then have to verify the result, reformat it for another system, or manually enter the same information elsewhere.

That pattern helps explain why reported satisfaction with AI can sit alongside complaints about time lost to administration. The technology may improve speed at the task level while failing to remove duplication at the process level.

Regional picture

The ASEAN results add to a broader picture of how organisations are trying to turn interest in AI into measurable productivity gains. The region spans a wide range of digital maturity levels, but large employers across its markets share common problems around fragmented software estates, siloed data and complex approval chains.

For employers, the findings raise questions about where AI investment should be directed. Buying more tools may not solve bottlenecks if staff still have to act as the link between systems, teams and conflicting data sources.

For employees, the numbers suggest a sizeable part of the working week is still consumed by low-value coordination work. In the survey, one in five workers said that the burden amounts to more than seven hours a week, effectively the loss of nearly a full working day.