For most of 2024 and 2025, businesses measured AI adoption by one metric: how much time and money it saved. Companies automated repetitive tasks, reduced headcount, and squeezed marginal gains from existing workflows.
Ben Barnett, Regional Vice President for UK&I at monday.com, says that approach is ending. In 2026, organizations will prioritize effectiveness over efficiency, shifting from doing things faster to ensuring teams work on the right things.
“In 2026, successful organisations will stop chasing marginal efficiency gains and squeezing out cost savings, and pivot their focus to effectiveness: jobs and work that are meaningful, manageable, and empowering”
AI work management moves beyond simple task automation
Early AI deployments automated emails, summarized meetings, and handled admin work. These applications saved time but didn’t change how companies made decisions or set priorities.
According to Monday.com’s AI at Work report, 59% of UK directors now say AI has enhanced decision-making and insights. As a result, the technology has moved from task management into strategic territory. According to Barnett:
“AI is already playing a major role here. But building on this momentum requires a holistic approach to effectiveness, with a cultural shift driving motivation and engagement at work at its core.”
Gartner calls 2026 the “Growth-Efficiency Era.” Their research shows successful organizations will remove friction from difficult work. Meanwhile, they won’t just automate simple tasks. This approach frees employees for work that requires judgment and problem-solving.
Why employee empowerment drives work management success
Barnett says technology alone won’t deliver results. Instead, organizations must change how they structure work, with those that treat AI as a cost-cutting tool to see limited returns. As Barnett describes:
“Businesses that recognise and reward problem solving, experimentation, and cross-functional collaboration will enable their employees to feel more connected to their work and its outcomes.”
Most work management platforms function as top-down monitoring systems. However, the effectiveness approach requires something different. Specifically, it needs tools that give employees more agency.
How to measure work management effectiveness in 2026
The shift from efficiency to effectiveness changes what companies measure. For years, task completion rates and time-to-delivery have served as standard KPIs. However, they don’t show whether teams work on the right priorities. Furthermore, they don’t reveal whether employees feel engaged.
Organizations in 2026 need to track different metrics. These include where teams get stuck and where collaboration breaks down. Moreover, they need to identify where important work gets pushed aside for urgent but low-impact tasks.
The tools to enable this shift already exist. Nevertheless, the question remains whether organizations will change how they think about work management. Specifically, this means moving from monitoring tasks to enabling impact.
Organizations that make this shift will retain talent better. They’ll also compete more effectively in markets where basic productivity no longer differentiates. On the other hand, those that continue optimizing purely for speed will struggle.
Work management platforms will succeed by helping organizations answer a different question. Not “how fast can we work?” but “are we working on what matters?”
“Empowered people are more likely to take ownership of their progress and autonomy, and to use tools—including AI—to remove friction from workflows and build on their impact,” Barnett explains. “A person-centred approach to effectiveness, by contrast, leads to faster innovation cycles, higher customer satisfaction, and employees who feel energised by the work they own.”
