There’s a phrase Sarkis Kalashian retains coming again to: visibility.
As the chief overseeing utilized AI and core product at Smartsheet, he’s watched organisations pour useful resource into instruments, headcount, and digital transformation programmes, solely to seek out their groups no simpler than earlier than. The rationale, he argues, isn’t effort. It’s measurement.
“We haven’t totally caught as much as the expertise. We haven’t organised our cultures, our incentive programs, our methods of measuring success. Sixty-eight p.c of UK leaders nonetheless equate being busy with success, basically.”
That determine comes from Smartsheet’s newly printed analysis report, The Nice British Productiveness Paradox, which surveyed 500 UK enterprise decision-makers. It discovered the typical UK group loses a full working day each week, roughly ten full work weeks a 12 months, to what the report calls “busy work”: low-value, repetitive duties disconnected from significant outcomes. At present common labour prices, that quantities to round £12,000 in misplaced productive worth per worker, per 12 months.
It’s a discovering that sits alongside a broader sample. A 2025 LSE examine discovered that professionals utilizing AI save a mean of seven.5 hours per week, but most workers (68%) have obtained no AI coaching up to now 12 months. In the meantime, EY’s 2025 Work Reimagined Survey discovered that whereas 83% of UK workers now use Gen AI at work, fewer than 5% are utilizing it to essentially remodel how they work. UK companies, in different phrases, are sitting on unrealised potential, and Kalashian believes he is aware of why.
For Kalashian, none of that is stunning. Organisations have layered new instruments on prime of previous methods of considering. One thing needed to give.
The issue with wanting productive
One anecdote from early in Kalashian’s profession has stayed with him. A pacesetter as soon as instructed a junior rent: “You’re working for Sarkis, he’s such a taskmaster.” It was supposed as a praise.
“That was meant to be a extremely optimistic factor: saying ‘this man actually will get it finished, he completes his duties’,” he recollects. “However I’d say that is the place companies must take a more durable look. What’s the incentive system, and the way do you’ve got the transparency and visibility into what individuals are doing that ladders as much as the overarching aim you’re attempting to drive?”
The report finds a disconnect between what leaders imagine and the way they really behave. 63% of decision-makers agree that hours labored isn’t an efficient productiveness measure. But 26% admit it’s nonetheless how they assess efficiency. Kalashian calls this hole a “productiveness tax”: one which quietly erodes aggressive benefit whereas groups look, and really feel, busy.
The report additionally names a associated behaviour: “job masking.” That is the place workers intentionally carry out seen however low-value work to seem productive. Cultural stress drives it. Six in ten leaders say they witness it continuously. IBM’s analysis from late 2025 provides weight to this image: 67% of UK enterprise leaders say inside resistance and cultural boundaries are stalling AI rollouts, suggesting the issue runs deeper than expertise entry.
“You’ll be able to’t simply repair what you possibly can’t see. Quite a lot of that is taken for regular, on a regular basis issues that individuals need to do — we simply assume it wants to remain that approach.”
From duties to outcomes
So what ought to organisations measure as a substitute? Kalashian argues leaders must reframe the questions they ask solely.
“For those who’re in a one-on-one together with your group and also you ask, ‘What did we get finished this week?’, that’s oriented round duties. However for those who pivot in direction of outcomes: what did you drive ahead? What dangers did you deal with? What did you unblock? You begin to body questions across the extra advanced points that drive outcomes.”
He describes it as a design query. It requires rethinking workflows from the highest down. Are company objectives clearly cascaded to team-level plans? Do particular person tasks join visibly to these objectives? And critically: do leaders observe the issues that forestall progress — not simply the duties themselves?
Know-how has a job right here. However Kalashian is cautious. He positions it as an enabler of cultural change, not a alternative for it. This aligns with Smartsheet’s broader push into what it calls Clever Work Administration: a platform philosophy unveiled at its 2025 ENGAGE convention that strikes past job co-ordination towards AI that actively shapes work route and surfaces insights in actual time.
AI on the inflection level
Kalashian describes enterprise AI adoption as a spectrum. On one finish, organisations cautiously experiment with co-pilots and summarisation instruments. On the opposite, nonetheless comparatively uncommon, companies have totally rearchitected round agentic workflows, with AI operating processes across the clock.
“I don’t assume we’re at that turning level but. We’re nonetheless on the inflection second the place there are various levels of maturity.”
The report backs this up: 80% of leaders say AI has already boosted their productiveness. Greater than half anticipate it to be the highest productiveness driver inside three to 5 years. Kalashian believes the actual shift occurs when AI stops being an add-on and begins integrating into how work really flows. As UC At present’s comparability of the main work administration platforms famous earlier this 12 months, that is exactly the battleground on which Smartsheet, monday.com, and Asana at the moment are competing — and the place Smartsheet’s deep enterprise penetration offers it a definite benefit.
He factors to Smartsheet’s personal MCP (Mannequin Context Protocol) server for instance. The group launched it round six weeks earlier than our dialog. Adoption rapidly outpaced expectations, pushed not by an enormous advertising push, however by natural, word-of-mouth uptake.
“Somebody instructed me their main use case is summarising all of the notifications and actions they need to deal with inside Smartsheet every morning. They’re tagged seventeen instances an hour on one thing. So on the finish of every day and each morning, they do a recap, know what to concentrate on, and ignore the remainder.”
That particular person productiveness acquire, he explains, then creates a ripple impact, drawing colleagues in and shifting collaboration patterns throughout groups.
Management because the lever
Kalashian’s most pointed message is for leaders themselves. Instruments alone gained’t burst the busy bubble. Leaders must mannequin totally different behaviour: visibly, and intentionally.
He shares a latest instance. Fairly than ready for his group to supply a standing report, he constructed it himself utilizing Smartsheet and Claude. Then he shared it with the group, to not showcase, however to exhibit a quicker approach of working.
“I’m solely as quick as possibly the slowest member of my group, even with all of the instruments, as a result of I nonetheless need to catch them up. The purpose isn’t to depart individuals behind, it’s how do you elevate everybody up?”
His recommendation to leaders studying the analysis is easy. First, ask whether or not each group member is doing one thing purposeful. Then verify whether or not that objective connects clearly to the corporate’s top-line objectives. After that, look truthfully at individuals, course of, and expertise. Do all three work collectively in a brand new approach of working?
The wellbeing dimension issues right here too. The report notes that 4 in 10 enterprise leaders recognise worker wellbeing as a key productiveness driver — and busy work actively undermines it, leaving individuals disengaged and at larger threat of burnout. Getting this proper isn’t only a tradition train; it has a direct line to efficiency.
“For those who’re not addressing the organisational stuff in your aspect,” he says, “you’re nonetheless going to run into challenges.”
