How to figure out where AI actually saves time
Most AI tools create more work and confusion instead of helping business operations. Trying to figure out which ones are genuinely useful wastes time and leaves owners avoiding AI entirely.
What the numbers show
Counted from the threads quoted below. How we count
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1using AI exclusively for narrow, specific tasks like data extraction from documentsDid this help you?
- 2avoiding AI tools altogether to save time on search and troubleshootingDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“the hard part is figuring out where it actually saves time instead of creating more work”source ↗
“I waste more time avoiding ai than using it.”source ↗
“Aside from that it’s practically useless for my business b”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 3Panicking about how to spend rare free time
- 25Why does fixing AI mistakes take longer than doing it myself?
- 4What is my job now that AI does half of it?
- 91How to decide whether to invest excess savings or keep them in an HYSA
- 7How are you actually supposed to spend invested money?
- 10How to actually use AI for IT work instead of just hype