Generative AI Cuts Working Hours for Government Staff, Survey Finds

Employees at Japanese government ministries and agencies have been able to reduce their working hours by an estimated average of 110 minutes per week through the use of the Gennai generative artificial intelligence (AI) platform, a Digital Agency survey showed, The Japan Times reported.

Japan's Digital Agency developed the Gennai generative AI platform to help government employees perform administrative tasks and retrieve information more efficiently.

The online survey was conducted among employees of government ministries and agencies in August and September, collecting valid responses from 6,439 people.

More than half of the respondents said they were able to save at least one hour of work per week.

Specifically, 35.1% said they reduced their working hours by one to three hours, 10.9% by three to five hours, 5.2% by five to 10 hours and 3.2% by 10 hours or more. Meanwhile, 34.6% said their working hours remained largely unchanged.

Asked about the benefits of using the AI platform, respondents cited its ability to “quickly create a rough draft,” “find necessary information from vast volumes of documents” and “catch up with technical knowledge faster.”

The survey found that 10.4% of respondents used the platform almost every day, 11% used it three or four times a week, and 26.4% used it once or twice a week.

A total of 31.2% said they rarely used it or had never used it.

Developed and operated by Japan's Digital Agency, Gennai is being made available to about 180,000 government employees. The platform also features an AI agent function capable of autonomously carrying out two or more tasks simultaneously.