Artificial intelligence is costing the workforce a day of graft per week – because humans are having to check and correct all the errors it makes. Almost half (46%) of workers are redoing work produced incorrectly by colleagues using AI tools – and it's taking them an average of six hours and 57 minutes a week, according to a new study.

Two in ten people opt to completely redo the 'AI slop' produced by other employees, research commissioned by Arden University revealed.

However, the study of 2,000 working adults also highlighted half of those correcting colleagues' AI work used AI to help fix it.

Nearly two thirds of workers admitted to using AI in the past three months – most commonly to look up information, write emails or come up with ideas.

Workers revealed that AI helped them finish tasks faster and a quarter of employees admitted it contributed to their understanding of a difficult subject.

Younger generations are most likely to turn to AI with 73% of Gen Z and 72% of Millennials using ChatGPT, Claude or similar compared to 56% of Gen Xers. Despite this rise in AI use in the workplace, more than half (53%) of employees don't tell their boss about their AI use at work.

Chief innovation and commercial officer at Arden University, Vitaly Klopot, said employers need to 'consider the effect' of AI on the 'whole team'.

He said: "Getting an answer from a chatbot is only the starting point. The opportunity goes beyond producing more emails and documents.

"It's about solving problems, improving work and building reliable processes for everyday tasks. A quick draft may save one person time but if a colleague spends hours correcting it, employers need to consider the effect on the whole team."

He added: "Practical education can help workers move beyond trial and error. Most users already report saving time – the next step is helping more people get useful results confidently and responsibly."

Arden University has announced a strategic partnership with Google Cloud and will launch more than 30 new degrees designed to include AI-enabled learning experiences and prepare students for the workplace.