While optimism for AI’s potential remains high in Singapore, a new survey by Notion reveals a significant disconnect between what workers expect from AI and their day-to-day reality.
According to new data, nearly three-quarters (72%) of white-collar workers say AI-generated output requires significant editing or fact-checking, turning a supposed time-saver into a time-sink.
The findings highlight a widespread sentiment of frustration with current AI tools. Half (49%) of Singaporean white-collar workers feel their AI tools only meet their daily needs “somewhat well.”
In fact, 70% express outright frustration, with their biggest complaints being that the tools give generic outputs that lack originality (35%), require them to manually copy and paste outputs into other tools (28%), or only answer questions without taking any action (23%).
This data paints a picture of a workforce that is genuinely hopeful for AI to transform their jobs, with 78% of workers optimistic about its future potential, but are currently stuck with tools that feel more like incomplete assistants than true partners.
As a result, only a third of workers feel their use of AI frees up time for more meaningful, creative, or strategic work.
For the past decade, the SaaS era solved some problems but created others leaving work fragmented across dozens of disconnected tools. The first generation of AI was layered on top of this broken foundation, which is why it has been so frustrating — it lacks context and connection to do meaningful work.
Now in the pivot to the agentic era, Agents operate in a single, connected workspace, moving beyond just answering questions to execute complex, multi-step tasks. Work becomes less manual, as users collaborate not just human teammates, but also with a team of AI agents that do the work.
“The initial excitement for AI is now meeting the reality of daily work, and what we’re hearing from professionals in Singapore is that it’s creating a ‘productivity tax.’ Instead of saving time, they are spending it correcting, fact-checking, and moving information between siloed tools.,” said Andrew McCarthy, GM of ANZ, SEA and India at Notion.
“Consolidation isn’t just a cost strategy; it’s a clarity strategy and we’re launching AI Agents not just as a new feature but as a new kind of teammate that can work on a team’s behalf, taking on the tedious tasks so professionals can reallocate their time to the things that matter most: strategy, creativity, and human connection,” he added.
